Category: Statue of Liberty

🇺🇸🗽⚖️ JOIN AFSC IN OPPOSING THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S EMBRACE OF TITLE 42 & THE DAILY VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS THE ADMINISTRATION COMMITS 🏴‍☠️ USING THIS UNLAWFUL & IMMORAL CHARADE!

 

https://www.afsc.org/action/tell-president-biden-restore-right-to-claim-asylum

Tell President Biden: Restore the right to asylum!

Sign our petition today

American Friends Service Committee

1.89K subscribers

End Title 42!

<div class=”player-unavailable”><h1 class=”message”>An error occurred.</h1><div class=”submessage”><a href=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpQH–gTPoA” target=”_blank”>Try watching this video on www.youtube.com</a>, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser.</div></div>

Migrants should be welcomed with dignity and compassion—not turned away or treated inhumanely.

Finally, after over two years, a district court has ruled that the Title 42 expulsion policy- which has blocked most migrants from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum- violates U.S. law and ordered the Biden administration to end it.

This anti-immigrant policy has led to hundreds of thousands of people deported back to dangerous conditions or stranded in makeshift camps. Other migrants have been forced to take dangerous routes through deserts, mountains, rivers, and the ocean—facing extreme heat, violence, even death.

The termination of the policy goes into effect at the end of December, unless the administration attempts to delay this. That is why we are calling on the Biden administration to end this policy IMMEDIATELY and to not accompany this with the expansion of detention.

Sign our petition to speak out against this cruel policy today!

Letter to President

 

Dear President Biden:

I believe that people fleeing dangerous situations in their home countries should be welcome to the United States with compassion—not dealt overwhelming obstacles to seeking asylum.

That is why I am relieved to hear that after over two years, a district court has ended the cruel and unnecessary use of Title 42. This anti-immigrant policy has led to hundreds of thousands of people deported back to dangerous conditions or stranded in makeshift camps. Under this cruel policy, Black and Brown migrants have suffered disproportionately while some others have been able to seek asylum—evidence of the racism that drives our immigration enforcement policies.

That is why I am calling on the Biden administration to end Title 42 immediately and to not replace it with other inhumane and xenophobic policies that cause similar harm. Additionally, your administration must not accompany this with the expansion of immigration detention. Any efforts to uphold this policy actively supports more family separations, trauma, and violence against Black, Brown, and immigrant communities.

All people—regardless of where they were born, the color of their skin, their culture or religious affiliation—should be able to seek refuge and be welcomed with the compassion, dignity, and respect we all deserve. I urge your administration to do all that you can to end Title 42 immediately—and ensure all migrants can exercise their right to seek asylum.

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Stephen Miller Monster
The regime that employed this monster to abuse and persecute asylum seekers was voted out of office more than TWO YEARS AGO! Long past time for the Biden Administration to STOP defending, expanding, and carrying out his illegal and immoral policies that inflict “DIRE HARM” on vulnerable LEGAL asylum seekers!  Attribution: Stephen Miller Monster by Peter Kuper, PoliticalCartoons.com

”BIDEN DOJ HALL OF SHAME” — Those Who Have Defended or Enabled Stephen Miller’s “Crimes Against Humanity:”

  • Merrick Garland, Attorney General

  • Lisa Monaco, Deputy Attorney General

  • Vanita Gupta, Associate Attorney General

  • Kristen Clarke, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights

  • Elizabeth Prolager, Solicitor General

When these guys eventually “come out” of their cushy political positions, and are looking for jobs in the “real world” they now blithely ignore, progressives, human rights, and racial justice advocates should remember where they stood and what they did or failed to do when human rights and the rule of law were “on the line!”

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

12-10-22

Related posts:

  1. 🤯🏴‍☠️🤡🤮👎🏽INCOMPETENCE WATCH: Lacking Integrity & Skills To Follow The Law, Tone-Deaf, Dangerous,  & Disingenuous Biden Immigration Officials Consider Additional Massive Violations Of Human Rights For Asylum Seekers! — ACLU & NDPA Ready To Resist Administration’s Latest Unwarranted Assaults on Human Rights, Common Sense, & Human Decency!
  2. 🇺🇸🏴‍☠️RACE IN AMERICA: CARRIE ROSENBAUM “GETS IT,” EVEN AS MAYORKAS, GARLAND, HARRIS & THE OTHER BIDEN HYPOCRITES PRETEND NOT TO:  “Immigration reform, and a more robust application of the Equal Protection doctrine to all those inside the country, and at our borders, is necessary to move towards meaningfully dismantling systemic racism.”
  3. 🇺🇸🗽⚖️MORE GOOD NEWS FOR AMERICA AS TRUMP KAKISTOCRACY☠️🦹🏿‍♂️⚰️ FINALLY COMES TO AN END: Biden Will Move Immediately For Sane, Humane, Practical Immigration Policies — Wants To Put Trump’s Cruel, Racist, Stupid Abuses Of Humanity, Common Sense, Rule Of Law, & America’s Immigrant Heritage In The Rear-View Mirror! — Promises Reversal Of DHS’s Role As White Nationalist “Political Police Force”🏴‍☠️☠️ That Beat Up On the Most Vulnerable While Ignoring Real Security Threat Posed By Trump-Inspired Righty Domestic Terrorists!
  4. 🗽DISSENTING OPINION: TRADING AWAY REFUGEE RIGHTS & DUE PROCESS FOR LONG OVERDUE DREAMER PROTECTIONS IS “NOT OK!”

🗽DISSENTING OPINION: TRADING AWAY REFUGEE RIGHTS & DUE PROCESS FOR LONG OVERDUE DREAMER PROTECTIONS IS “NOT OK!”

🗽DISSENTING OPINION: TRADING AWAY REFUGEE RIGHTS & DUE PROCESS FOR LONG OVERDUE DREAMER PROTECTIONS IS “NOT OK!”

By Paul Wickham Schmidt

Courtside Exclusive

Dec. 6, 2022

I dissent. 

I was outraged when I read in this morning’s Washington Post about the horrible “Sinema/Tillis misnamed immigration compromise” (actually a “sellout”) being negotiated during the lame duck session of Congress. In short, that proposal apparently would trade long overdue protection for “Dreamers” for the rights and lives of refugees and asylum seekers. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/05/congress-working-strike-last-minute-immigration-deals/

Incredibly, in the face of U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan’s findings that the intentional illegal use of Title 42 had resulted in countless clear violations of the legal rights of asylum seekers, subjecting them to a litany of horrors and abuses that he described as “dire harm,” these legislators would extend those abuses for an indefinite period! That’s notwithstanding evidence not only of the irreparable harm that Title 42 has caused, but also the rather obvious fact that once we “normalize” those abuses, they will never end. 

There will always be another fabricated reason for extending the Title 42 charade. Indeed, once we start mischaracterizing abuse as “law,” we can’t even call it “abuse” and hold the abusers accountable! That’s all part of the dehumanizing or “Dred Scottification” process! 

Additionally, in the place of a functioning working asylum and refugee system, the proposal would eventually substitute so called “processing centers” and “expedited procedures” to railroad asylum seekers out of the country without due process. And, it wouldn’t address the total dysfunction and denial of due process in our Immigration “Courts” by enacting another long overdue provision:  the “Lofgren Article I Immigration court bill!” What a farce!

Let’s be clear about what’s happening here! The legal and human rights of refugees and asylum seekers are not “ours” to trade away for relief for another deserving group that has long been irrationally denied! “Processing centers” are a euphemism for “immigration prisons” — part of the “New American Gulag.” “Expedited processing” is a euphemism for “railroading.” Both detention and artificially expediting dockets have been proven to be ineffective and unjust, over and over. Yet, here we go again! 

My outrage turned to shock and dismay when I learned that some erstwhile defenders of due process, human rights, and racial justice for asylum seekers (incredibly) thought that this type of immoral compromise was a “good idea!” Not me!

Restrictionist/nativist Dems masquerading as “moderates” are a huge problem. They play right into the GOP’s hands. 

When committing crimes against humanity or giving away refugees’ rights becomes a “strategy,” “option,” or “bargaining chip,” we’re lost as a nation. And, that’s exactly where we’re heading with horrible, immoral proposals like this.

Human rights and due process are non-negotiable! And, I guarantee that extending Title 42, building additional Gulag (rather than making the existing legal asylum and refugee systems work), and railroading asylum seekers will empower smugglers and lead to further growth of our underground population. 

Human migration won’t be stopped by ineffective and immoral “deterrence.” And, although many hate the idea, refugees basically “self-select” and are driven by forces beyond our immediate control. 

Refugees are, by definition, folks who can’t return! So, there is no reason to believe that true refugees (of which there are many) are going to be “deterred.” They might be “incentivized” to seek refuge in particular, relatively safe, places; but, nobody seems interested in a “carrot” approach — even though the “stick approach” has failed and continues to do so!

Look at the folks who continue to die in vessels in the Mediterranean even though they are fully aware that they are unwanted and that the EU will stop at no cruelty to keep them out. 

And, examine the wealth of documentation that folks forced to “remain in Mexico” — and apply under what we know to be a corrupt and inadequate system — are systematically abused and exploited. 

This time, we’re not just “pushing the St. Louis out to sea.” We’re torpedoing her and watching the passengers drown. And Dems are a huge part of the problem!

Other (soon to be former) progressive Democrats might choose to “go along to get along” with heaping additional abuses on largely defenseless refugees and asylum seekers. But, not me! I dissent!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-06-22 

Related posts:

  1. WOW, HERE’S A SURPRISE: MANY KIDS FLEEING VIOLENCE IN THE NORTHERN TRIANGLE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT BIDEN BORDER POLICIES — They Are Just Trying To Save Their Lives!
  2. WENDY YOUNG @ KIND ON SAN ANTONIO TRAGEDY
  3. 😰NO HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR FAMILIES IN “THE NEW AMERICAN GULAG”☠️⚰️ — As Kakistocracy Of War Criminals 🤮🏴‍☠️ Departs, Will President Biden Have The Wisdom & Guts To Move Beyond “The Dem Border Alarmists” & Get The Progressive Leaders 🦸🏽‍♂️⚖️ From The NDPA In Place To Bring Due Process & Order To The Border?🗽🇺🇸
  4. HOW “AMERICA’S KILLER COURTS” PROMOTE “CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY” — HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: TRUMP & HIS WHITE NATIONALIST SYCOPHANTS & TOADIES TOUT LAWLESS POLICIES THAT VIOLATE LEGAL OBLIGATIONS & HELP KILL, RAPE, TORTURE THOSE RETURNED TO EL SALVADOR — Supremes & Article III Judiciary Complicit In Gross Human Rights Violations! 

🇺🇸ELECTION 2022 – PERRY BACON JR @ WASHPOST GETS IT ALMOST RIGHT — Except He Omits One Of Most Overlooked, Under-appreciated, & Over-achieving Groups In The Dem Base: Immigration/Human Rights/Racial Justice Advocates & Supporters!

 

Perry Bacon, Jr.
Perry Bacon, Jr.
Washington Post Columnist
PHOTO: WashPost

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/21/democratic-voters-won-the-midterms-strategy/

The heroes of the 2022 midterm elections were Democratic voters and activists, not the party’s leadership. Those leaders should remember that and not try to distance themselves from the party’s base as they have at times in the past two years.

Though they changed course in the final months before the election, the Biden administration and congressional Democrats spent much of 2021 and 2022 on a flawed strategy. Democratic leaders were determined to boost the party with people who didn’t vote for Joe Biden in 2020, particularly the White voters without college degrees who have shifted sharply to the GOP over the last decade. So Democrats focused largely on economic policy, such as the American Rescue Plan, the infrastructure bill and a law making it easier to manufacture microchips in the United States. They intentionally highlighted how these provisions would help people without college degrees and people in rural areas.

They at times sidelined other issues, such as voting rights, that might not be the priorities of White voters without college degrees. In July, a top White House official, communications director Kate Bedingfield, bashed party activists who complained that the administration wasn’t responding aggressively enough to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling eliminating the right to an abortion. And Democrats moved to the right on some issues, most notably policing. There were constant efforts to court moderate GOP voters and lawmakers and sideline prominent left-wing figures.

. . . .

The Democrats didn’t do well in this year’s elections by flipping lots of voters in places that voted Republican in 2020, such as Florida and Ohio. What they did was maintain strength in the congressional districts and states that they won two years ago and four years ago. The party’s base prevented the bottom from falling out.

Party officials are rushing to give credit — to one another. And some of the party’s leaders do deserve praise. Candidates such as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, who easily won reelection, and Pennsylvania Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro early in their campaigns highlighted abortion and democracy, in addition to the economy. Biden rightly ignored some in the party who argued he should not talk about democracy issues in the final days of the campaign.

But in elections, the voters are the actors, the deciders. And this year, millions of Democratic-leaning voters turned out and stuck with the party, looking past sky-high inflation and a leadership team that spent much of its time courting people who would never vote for Democrats while ignoring key priorities of people who always vote for the Democrats.

These voters should be commended and celebrated.

****************

Read the complete op-ed at the link.

Perry my friend, let’s go back just a bit in time and think about the “original targets” of Trump’s MAGA GOP “platform” of hate, lies, false narratives, and virulent anti- democracy insurrection masquerading as “patriotism!” 

Who’s been out there fighting for truth, justice, and equality before the law since “Day 1” of the MAGA hate movement? Who led the resistance at airports when the first manifestations of the Trump regime’s neo-Nazism in action began just shortly after his inauguration? Who took the legal fight to preserve American democracy all the way to the Supremes before a right-leaning majority still wedded to Dred Scott and the Chinese Exclusion cases tilted in favor of tyranny? A tilt, I might add that has progressively gotten worse over time and has spawned millions of human rights abuses, enabled torture, and actually helped kill some of the vulnerable humans we were sworn to protect?

Historically, migrants of all types, voluntary or involuntary, have constituted the “other” in America — targeted, disadvantaged at law,  and exploited by their fellow Americans even while being the essential ingredient that has built our nation. 

It’s rather odd, considering that 98% of us were “the other” at some point in history. I suppose a reckoning with that “inconvenient truth” is one of a number of reasons why the  MAGA GOP works so hard to “whitewash” American history. 

So, it’s worth thinking about why a talented group, their expertise, and their “learned wisdom” — and the better America for all that they represent and fight for — becomes so expendable and ignored by Dems between election cycles. Also worth reflecting on where American democracy, tenuous as it might be today, would be without them.

If the Biden Administration had honored and “leveraged” the immigration experts who helped elect it in 2016 and preserve it in 2022, we might well have order at the border, many more legal workers, lower inflation, decreasing backlogs, focused immigration enforcement that preserves national security, courts that model equal justice and due process and help develop the Article III Judiciary of the future, creative ideas for helping the economy of rural America, smarter use of taxpayer dollars, the list goes on. Success in these areas might even have enabled Dems to hold onto the House or given them a bigger margin in the Senate.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-28-22

Related posts:

  1. 👹🎃HALLOWEEN HORROR 🏴‍☠️☠️🤮⚰️👎🏻REICHSREPORT: GRUPPENFUHRER MILLER REVEALS “REICHSPLAN” FOR EXTERMINATION OF IMMIGRATION, ASYLUM, REFUGE BY EXECUTIVE DECREE!  — “The Final Solution??”  — Parents, Protect Your Kids, Families, & Your Country From This Grotesque Un-American Monster!
  2. 😰👹👺🏴‍☠️☠️⚰️🤮“DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN” — Nicole Narea @ Vox With A Glimpse Of Trump’s Second Term: American Apocalypse — Dark, Ugly, Hateful, Violent, Dishonest, Exclusionary, Stupid, Racist, Diminished, Yet Very White & Privileged — Are People Of Color & Their Allies Really Going To Stand By & Watch While Their Past & Our Future As A Strong, Creative, Tolerant, Diverse, Humane Nation Is Written Out Of History By A Racist GOP & Its Totally Wacko Yet Dangerously Evil Cult Leader?
  3. PURE BS 💩 — TRUMP’S “BIG LIE” ABOUT MIGRANT APPEARANCES FOR HEARINGS BOGUS AS $3 BILL 🤮👎🏻— Replacing DHS/EOIR With Rational, Qualified, Fact-Based Governance & Real Judiciary Could Bring Appearance Rate Close To 100%!  — Two Items From ImmigrationProf Blog!
  4. CRIME BLOTTER: CHILD ABUSE🤮☠️⚰️🦹🏿‍♀️: DOJ IG REPORT CONFIRMS WHAT COURTSIDE & OTHERS KNEW FROM THE START: Trump, Sessions, Miller, Rosenstein, Hamilton Are Cowards🐓, Lying 🤥 Criminals, Child Abusers🦹🏿‍♀️, Who Belong Behind Bars For Intentionally Abusing Asylum Seeking Families & Kids & Then Having Their Sleazy DOJ Lawyers Lie To Federal Judges! — What Happened To “Due Diligence” As An Ethical Requirement For Government Lawyers?

😎🗽⚖️ HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM COURTSIDE & THE NDPA!

Happy Thanksgiving Vegan Turkey
Happy Thanksgiving Vegan Turkey
By Cathy Schmidt

Today’s Thanksgiving message from Elliott Kirschner & Dan Rather @ Steady: 

https://open.substack.com/pub/steady/p/happy-thanksgiving?r=330z7&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Happy Thanksgiving

Gratitude for so much

Dan Rather

and

Elliot Kirschner

13 hr ago

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Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving
Illustration: Daria Mikhaylova

Illustration: Daria Mikhaylova

Happy Thanksgiving

Gratitude for dreams, learning, and our diversity.

For our country’s most noble ideals.

For science.

Appreciation for the beauty of our planet.

For the wonders of music.

For the mysteries of our consciousness.

Recognition of the persistence of injustice.

Of the struggles for so many.

Of the contagion of hate.

Indebtedness to the support of friends and family.

To the inspiration of teachers.

To all those who refuse to look away from need.

Understanding that civic engagement requires ongoing effort.

That suffering should not be accepted.

That divisions induce weakness.

Praise for the poets who help us understand life, death, and everything in between.

For those whose courage protects us.

For those who came before us determined to make the world a better place.

Blessings for the children who can fix our damaged planet.

For the helpers who provide shoulders on which to lean.

For the leaders who refuse to abandon hope.

A deep and heartfelt thankfulness to all of you who have created a community of care, support, and steadiness.

Note: If you are not already a subscriber to our Steady newsletter, please consider joining us. And we always appreciate you sharing our content with others and leaving your thoughts in the comments.

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Thankful for:

  • The courage, determination, skills, and humanity of migrants of all kinds who enrich our nation with their presence;
  • Family, friends, and colleagues;
  • Pets, particularly Smokey the Cat, “Dunky Dog,” his friends   ( canines & humans) from the “7 AM, 711 Dog Club,” and the extended “Schmidt Family Menagerie;”
Duncan “Dunky Dog” Schmidt
Duncan “Dunky Dog” Schmidt
  • My wonderful colleagues @ The Round Table, AYUDA, Georgetown Law, and the rest of the NDPA for their tireless efforts to guarantee due process and fundamental fairness for all!

🇺🇸Happy Thanksgiving and Due Process Forever from Courtside!

PWS

11-24-22

Related posts:

  1. DAN RATHER & ELLIOTT KIRSCHNER: 🇺🇸⚖️🗽👩🏾‍⚖️CELEBRATING JUSTICE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON: “As much as the Republicans tried to undermine Justice Jackson with epithets of being an extremist, it is they who I believe history will judge as out of touch with the heart of this nation, and especially its future.” YUP!
  2. ⚖️🗽SUPREMES HEAR CASE ON UNNECESSARY DETENTION IN GULAG OF THOSE SEEKING LEGAL PROTECTION FROM PERSECUTION AND TORTUE! — Biden Administration Must End Human Rights Abuses 🏴‍☠️☠️In The “New American Gulag!”
  3. 🇺🇸⚖️🗽🛡⚔️ ROUND TABLE HERO 🥇JUDGE PHAN QUANG TUE @ WASHPOST ON BEING A REFUGEE IN AMERICA:  “But now is when the American people can step in and provide the Afghan refugees a haven whereby they can join ‘we the people’ to ‘form a more perfect Union’ for themselves, their children and their grandchildren.’”
  4. 🇺🇸🗽⚖️DAN RATHER: FIGHT THE ANTI-DEMOCRACY, ANTI-INDIVIDUAL-RIGHTS FAR RIGHT MINORITY 🏴‍☠️  — BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE:  “To all who feel bereft of hope, I offer the lessons of social movements of the past. Perseverance is power. Organizing inspires optimism. Resilience breeds results.”

⚖️THE GIBSON REPORT — 11-21-22 — CompiledBy Elizabeth Gibson, Managing Attorney, NIJC — HEADLINERS: Garland’s Tardy Rebuke Of Sessions’s 2018 Wrong Precedent Limiting IJ Termination Authority Likely Too Little, Too Late To Save EOIR — As GOP House White Nationalist Absurdists Abandon Economy, Inflation To Push For More Crimes Against Humanity Directed At Black and Brown Folks @ S. Border, Administration’s Failure To Respect Human Rights, Restore Legal Asylum System, Leverage Refugee Processing Leaves Dems With “No Defense!”

Elizabeth Gibson
Elizabeth Gibson
Managing Attorney
National Immigrant Justice Center
Publisher of “The Gibson Report”

pastedGraphic.png

 

Weekly Briefing

 

This briefing is designed as a quick-reference aggregation of developments in immigration law, practice, and policy that you can scan for anything you missed over the last week. The contents of the news, links, and events do not necessarily reflect the position of the National Immigrant Justice Center. If you have items that you would like considered for inclusion, please email them to egibson@heartlandalliance.org.

 

CONTENTS (jump to section)

  • ◦NEWS
  • ◦LITIGATION & AGENCY UPDATES
  • ◦RESOURCES
  • ◦EVENTS

 

PRACTICAL UPDATES

 

USCIS: Recommendations for Paper Filings to Avoid Scanning Delays

 

NEWS

 

Biden Is Still Separating Immigrant Kids From Their Families

Texas Observer: But as the case of Felipe shows, immigration officials have continued to separate parents and children in violation of the policy. From the start of the new administration to August 2022—the latest month for which data has been published—U.S. authorities have reported at least 372 cases of family separation.

 

Judge orders end to Trump-era asylum restrictions at border

AP: Within hours, the Justice Department asked the judge to let the order take effect Dec. 21, giving it five weeks to prepare. Plaintiffs including the American Civil Liberties Union didn’t oppose the delay.

 

Democrats confront bleak odds for immigration deal before 2023

Politico: Party leaders are pushing hard for legislation aiding the undocumented population known as “Dreamers” before Republicans take the House. But GOP senators have little interest. See also House Judiciary GOP Highlights First Oversight Targets.

 

Quality vs Quantity: How Does Sitting on the Dedicated Docket Impact the Judging Process?

TRAC: The outcome for asylum seekers has long been influenced by the identity of the immigration judge assigned to hear their case. This continues to be true as documented by TRAC’s just released judge-by-judge report series, now updated through FY 2022. In Arlington, Virginia, judge denial rates ranged from 15 percent to 95 percent. In Boston, judge denial rates varied from 17 percent to 93.5 percent. In Chicago, they ranged from 16 percent to 90 percent, while in San Francisco one judge denied just 1 percent of the cases while another denied 95 percent.

 

ICE lifted its ban on family visits, but relatives still struggle to see loved ones

NPR: Individuals held in immigration detention were barred from visits with relatives and friends for more than two years during the pandemic — far longer than federal prisons. In May, ICE lifted the ban, but immigrant advocates and people in detention centers argue that social visits have not been fully nor consistently reinstated.

 

Second immigrant bus arrives in Philadelphia from Texas, sent by Gov. Greg Abbott

Philly Inquirer: A second bus carrying immigrants from Texas arrived in Philadelphia Monday morning, a twice-in-six-days sequel that propelled the city to offer fresh welcome to more weary, uncertain travelers from the border.

 

Cubans, Nicaraguans drive illegal border crossings higher

AP: Fewer Venezuelans came after the the Biden administration introduced new asylum restrictions on Oct. 12, but increasing arrivals from other countries more than offset that decline, according to figures released late Monday. See also Mexico steps up immigration controls in south; Cuba, U.S. to hold second round of migration talks in Havana.

 

Senate: Migrants subject to unnecessary medical procedures

AP: U.S. immigration authorities didn’t do enough to adequately vet or monitor a gynecologist in rural Georgia who performed unnecessary medical procedures on detained migrant women without their consent, according to results of a Senate investigation released Tuesday.

 

The Public Has Never Seen The U.S. Government Force-Feed Someone — Until Now

Intercept: According to ICE’s Performance-Based National Detention Standards, whenever there is a “calculated use of force,” staff are required to use a handheld camera to record the incident. The Intercept, with Kumar’s consent, requested the video through the Freedom of Information Act. After ICE refused to turn over the footage, The Intercept filed a lawsuit and ICE subsequently agreed to turn over the footage, but the agency redacted the faces and names of everyone who appears in it, aside from Kumar.

 

Ten years of hurt: how the Guardian reported Qatar’s World Cup working conditions

Guardian: A multi-country investigation by the Guardian finds at least 6,500 migrant workers from south Asia have died in Qatar in the 10 years since it was awarded the right to host the World Cup.

 

LITIGATION & AGENCY UPDATES

 

Matter of Coronado Acevedo, 28 I&N Dec. 648 (A.G. 2022)

AG: (1)  Matter of S-O-G- & F-D-B-, 27 I&N Dec. 462 (A.G. 2018), is overruled. (2)  Pending the outcome of the rulemaking process, immigration judges and the Board of Immigration  of  Appeals  may  consider  and,  where  appropriate,  grant  termination  or  dismissal  of  removal  proceedings  in  certain  types  of  limited  circumstances,  such  as  where  a  noncitizen  has  obtained  lawful  permanent  residence  after  being  placed  in  removal  proceedings,  where  the  pendency  of  removal  proceedings  causes  adverse  immigration consequences for a respondent who must travel abroad to obtain a visa, or where  termination  is  necessary  for  the  respondent  to  be  eligible  to  seek  immigration  relief before United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

 

Biden Admin. Restores Immig. Courts’ Power To Nix Removals

Law360: The Biden administration on Thursday swept aside a Trump-era decision that mostly stripped immigration judges of their power to end removal proceedings, restoring immigration courts’ ability to terminate some deportation cases while it devises new policy.

 

Judge Allows Biden 5 Weeks To Wind Down Title 42

Law360: A federal judge on Wednesday granted “with great reluctance” the Biden administration’s request for a five-week stay of his previous day’s order to end expulsions of migrants under Title 42, a public health provision the Trump administration began using at the start of the pandemic.

 

Split 4th Circ. Orders Rehear Of Removal In Light Of Dimaya

Law360: A split Fourth Circuit panel ordered the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals to reconsider a Jamaican man’s removal order, criticizing the agency’s reasons for rejecting his claims that he diligently sought reversal of his order following a Supreme Court ruling.

 

NY IJ Asylum Victory; Guatemala; Feminist Political Opinion

LexisNexis: Michael Shannon writes: “I wanted to share a very good written decision from IJ Barbara Nelson, who granted asylum to my client based on her actual and imputed feminist political opinion under Hernandez-Chacon v. Barr.”

 

Feds Get OK For Psych Exams Of Migrant Parents

Law360: The federal government got the green light from an Arizona federal judge to conduct psychological examinations of asylum-seeking parents suing for damages for the alleged emotional trauma from being separated from their children at the southwestern U.S. border.

 

AILA and Partners Send Letter to USCIS, EOIR, and OPLA on Biometrics Appointments

AILA: AILA and partners sent a letter to USCIS, EOIR, and OPLA addressing the unnecessary hurdles non-detained people in removal proceedings face in securing a biometrics appointment prior to their merits hearing.

 

USCIS Notice of Continuation of TPS Documentation for El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Sudan, Honduras, and Nepal

AILA: USCIS notice of the automatic extension of the validity of TPS-related documentation for beneficiaries under the TPS designations for El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Sudan, Honduras, and Nepal set to expire on 12/31/22, through 6/30/24. (87 FR 68717, 11/16/22)

 

RESOURCES

 

 

EVENTS

 

 

To sign up for additional NIJC newsletters, visit:  https://immigrantjustice.org/subscribe.

 

You now can change your email settings or search the archives using the Google Group. If you are receiving this briefing from a third party, you can visit the Google Group and request to be added. If you receive an error, make sure you click request access.

 

Elizabeth Gibson (Pronouns: she/her/ella)

Managing Attorney for Capacity Building and Mentorship

National Immigrant Justice Center

A HEARTLAND ALLIANCE Program

224 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 600, Chicago, IL 60604
T: (312) 660-1688| F: (312) 660-1688| E: egibson@heartlandalliance.org

www.immigrantjustice.org | Facebook | Twitter

***********************

Miller Lite
After two years of “drinking the koolaid,” the party might be over for Mayorkas & Garland, as McCarthy & his insurrectionist/White Nationalist zanies “move in for the kill.”

Two years of ineptness, failure to clean house at DOJ and DHS, unkept promises to advocates, lack of guts to quickly reverse Trump’s massive scofflaw program of racist-inspired human rights abuses, arrogant “tuning out” of experts, lack of engagement and presence at the border have been largely ignored by Dems in both Houses. Indeed, other than a hearing on the Article 1 bill before Chair Lofgren (at which Garland was not required to appear and explain his due-process-denying mess and abject failure to reform EOIR), Dems failure to conduct meaningful oversight of the Administration’s mishandling of refugee programs, asylum, detention, asylum seeker resettlement, and Immigration Courts will be “coming home to roost” as insurrectionist, racists from the House GOP take aim at “snuffing” humanity and abolishing the rule of law! 

Two years of inept, immoral, “Miller Litism” from the Administration leaves Dems with no defense and no supporters of their actions. Nativist restrictionists wanted “100% kill” @ border! Experts wanted a return to the rule of law, orderly processing, and due process. The Biden Administration delivered neither!

We tried to tell them, but they wouldn’t listen! No,  McCarthy and his insurrectionist White Nationalist zany-haters have the floor. Just have to hope that historians are fully documenting the lies and Neo-Nazi views that these GOP hacks will be promoting — to help future generations understand how America “went off the rails” in the 21st century! Understandably, the GOP would rather focus on Biden’s failed immigration policies than on the rampant gun violence, hate crimes, child abuse, forced births, and dumbing down of America at the heart of their vile agenda!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever! The GOP’s “New McCarthyism,” Never!

PWS

11-23-22

Related posts:

  1. 👍🏼⚖️🗽MAJORITY OF ASYLUM SEEKERS WIN THEIR CASES, EVEN IN A BROKEN & BIASED  SYSTEM INTENTIONALLY STACKED AGAINST THEM — But, Only, If They Can Get To A “Merits Adjudication!” — Nativist Lies, Myths, Driving USG Policies Exposed! — Why USCIS & EOIR Self-Created Backlogs Primarily Shaft Those Deserving Legal Protection Of Some Type!
  2. THE GIBSON REPORT— 01-02-22 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire, NY Legal Assistance Group — Garland’s Aimless Docket Reshuffling (“ADR”) Squeezes Refugees On Both Ends Of His Ludicrous Backlog, As Those Patiently Waiting Given Court Dates Nearly A Decade In The Future, While Recent Arrivals Mindlessly Rocketed To The “Front Of The Line” Struggle To Find Lawyers & Prepare Cases — Plus Other New Year News From The Dystopian World Of U.S. Immigration!
  3. ⚖️🗽🧑🏽‍⚖️”MEDLEY OF INJUSTICE” — CIRCUITS CONTINUE TO LOWER HAMMER 🔨 ON BIA: Anti-Asylum Misogyny; Illegal & Incredibly Stupid “Policies;” “Perplexing” Lack Of Legal Knowledge Highlighted In Latest Batch Of Reversals! — “Attempted rape by a gang of men, in broad daylight on a public street, is especially terrorizing because it powerfully demonstrates the perpetrator’s domination, control over the victim and imperviousness to the law. Requiring evidence of additional harms both minimizes the gravity of the sexual assault and demeans the victim.”
  4. WOW, HERE’S A SURPRISE: MANY KIDS FLEEING VIOLENCE IN THE NORTHERN TRIANGLE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT BIDEN BORDER POLICIES — They Are Just Trying To Save Their Lives!

🇺🇸🦸🏻‍♀️⚖️🗽👩🏻‍⚖️ PROFILE IN GREATNESS! — Kathleen Guthrie Woods Sits Down With One Of America’s Most Consequential Jurists, NDPA Hall-of-Famer 🥇 Judge (Ret.) Dana Leigh Marks On Leading & Inspiring From the Gritty Trenches Of American Justice & Her Exciting New Role As “NanaDana!” 🥰

Kathleen Guthrie Woods
Kathleen Guthrie Woods
American Journalist & Writer
San Francisco, CA
PHOTO: Goodreads
Hon. Diana Leigh Marks
Hon. Dana Leigh (“NanaDana”) Marks
U.S. Immigration Judge (Ret.)
San Francisco Immigration Court
Past President, National Association of Immigration Judges; “Founding Mother of U.S. Asylum Law”

https://www.sfbar.org/sfam/q3-2022-unpacking-the-legacy-of-judge-dana-leigh-marks/

By the time she retired from San Francisco’s Immigration Court on December 31, 2021, Judge Dana Leigh Marks* had built an inspiring reputation as a leader, mentor, and advocate. She is known for her fierce advocacy for the court. She is known for her compassion and fairmindedness. She is known for her intelligence and wit, having coined oft-repeated, appropriate zingers that help people better understand the challenges of immigration court, including “Immigration judges do death penalty cases in a traffic court setting” and “Immigration is more complicated than tax law. How do I know this? Because there is no TurboTax for immigration law.”

Talking with her former colleagues—many of whom are now also her friends—is an uplifting experience. They speak of a woman who broke through barriers, applied the law fairly and compassionately, fought hard fights, and inspired others to join her. “She’s the GOAT of immigration judges!” declares Francisco Ugarte, Manager of the Immigration Defense Unit of San Francisco’s Public Defender’s Office.

Who is Judge Marks, and how did she positively influence and impact so many lives?

. . . .

Judge Marks also thrived in this arena because she saw beyond the expectation that her role was solely to facilitate deportations; she saw the humanity inherent in the proceedings. “Every story is individual,” she says, and every person deserves to be heard.

. . . .

“She showed us all how to be fierce advocates for justice—for what is true and right and just—without crossing over lines,” says Judge King. Jamil adds Judge Marks’s “tireless” work for the union and “giving a professional, female voice to immigration judges” to her list of accomplishments. “When she started, she was one of few women. After her, all these really amazing women came to the bench,” says Shugall, women Judge Marks mentored and encouraged to apply for the bench. That roster includes Judges Jamil, King, Miriam Hayward, Stockton, Webber, and Laura Ramirez. “She helped start that trajectory,” says Shugall.

“She helped create an inspiring model for how courts can be,” says Ugarte, and Judge Webber states, simply, “She inspires people all the time.”

“While she has had some limelight in her career, the vast majority of her work has been thankless,” says Judge King. “She perseveres solely because she believes it is important to make a difference wherever you can.”

*Today Judge Marks is known as “NanaDana,” a title that celebrates her role as caretaker for her granddaughter and helps people correctly pronounce her name (“dan-uh,” not “day-nuh”).

Kathleen Guthrie Woods is a long-time contributor to San Francisco Attorney magazine. She first interviewed Judge Marks, then-president of NAIJ, for “Understanding the Crisis in Our Immigration Courts” (Spring 2015).

**************************

Every judge, lawyer, and law student in America, and particularly AG Garland and his lieutenants, should read Kathleen’s interview with Judge Marks (full version at link) about what “American judging” should, and could, be — all the way up to the Supremes! 

Dana, my friend and colleague, your inspiring career is yet more evidence of the “then-available” talent who could have led long-overdue change at EOIR and the BIA. Like you, much of that talent has moved on to our Round Table, and we’re stuck with the dysfunctional mess at EOIR. But, others are arising in your image to fight for justice, sanity, and humanity from “the retail level on up” in our Federal Courts.

I will always think of you as the “Founding Mother of US Asylum Law” because of your stellar advocacy in Cardoza-Fonseca and your unending, unapologetic, and highly vocal commitment to due process, independent thinking, and judicial excellence. 

As you probably remember, I was in Court for your OA in Cardoza-Fonseca, sitting at the SG’s table as you won the day for your client. My “client,” INS, “lost” that day. But, American justice, due process, and human rights won!

As it was for you and those many you inspired, “realizing the promise of Cardoza-Fonseca” became the “guiding light” of my subsequent judicial career at EOIR, on both the appellate and trial benches. Despite the more than quarter-century since Cardoza, the battle to make judges at all levels actually follow its dictates, and perhaps more importantly, its generous humanitarian spirit, is far from won!

Congrats on your new position as “NanaDana.” 😎 I always look forward to working with you and our amazing Round Table colleagues to give due process and fundamental fairness an unyielding voice before courts throughout America, and to continue the unending fight for best judicial practices in a life-determining system that has “lost its way” as millions needlessly suffer!”

We “Knightesses and Knights of our Round Table” 🛡⚔️ will “never let the bastards grind us down!” You continue to inspire all of us in our never ending quest for justice for the most vulnerable individuals among us!

 

Knightess
“NanaDana’s” fierce fighting spirit continues to inspire our Round Table of Former Immigration Judges to new heights in the never-ending pursuit of “due process and fundamental fairness for all!” (Ironically, the latter was actually EOIR’s long-abandoned “vision!” )

 

Due Process Forever! 🗽😎⚖️👩🏻‍⚖️

Your friend & colleague, forever, ❤️

PWS

11-22-22

Related posts:

  1. 😎🗽⚖️👩‍⚖️ FLASH: JUDICIAL MAVEN HON. DANA LEIGH MARKS RETIRES, JOINS ROUND TABLE! 🛡⚔️ — “Founding Mother” Of U.S. Asylum Law Successfully Argued INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca @ Supremes, Led Immigration Judges’ Association, Spearheaded “Article I”  Movement For Judicial Independence, Saved Thousands of Lives Over Career On Bench Spanning More Than Three Decades!
  2. 🆘🤮IS 11TH CIR. GROWING WEARY OF GARLAND’S SCOFFLAW BIA? —Two Trips To The Circuit, & The BIA Still Violates Own Regulations, Ignores Precedent, Spouts Gibberish While OIL’s Defense Of This Nonsense & Malfeasance By EOIR Raises Serious Ethical Questions! — THAMOTAR v. U.S. ATT’Y GEN. — Garland’s Dysfunctional & Systematically Unjust Courts Undermine OUR Democracy☠️ — Demand An IMMEDIATE End To The Scofflaw Nonsense🤡 🧹 At OUR Justice Department! 🏴‍☠️
  3. HON. DANA LEIGH MARKS REFLECTS ON AMAZING FOUR DECADES OF SERVICE TO PUBLIC & HUMANITY!
  4. ⚖️🧑🏽‍⚖️👨🏻‍⚖️🗽COURT REFORM: GW IMMIGRATION CLINIC STUDENTS WEIGH IN ON ARTICLE I — Emphasize Critical Due Process Need To Entirely Remove AG From Decision-Making Process!

🇺🇸🗽⚖️⭐️🥇♥️🦸🏻‍♀️ PATRIOT, HERO, HUMANITARIAN, DYNAMIC LEADER, ROLE MODEL: Paula Fitzgerald, Executive Director of AYUDA, “Lt. General” of the NDPA, Will Receive Georgetown University’s Prestigious John Thompson Jr. Legacy of a Dream Award, “given to a local individual who exemplifies the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.!” — (She’s also a “Great Fiduciary!”)😎

Paula Fitzgerald
Paula Fitzgerald
Executive Director
AYUDA

 

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The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Georgetown University Announce 2023 “Legacy of a Dream” Awardee

featuring

Leslie Odom, Jr.

and

THE LET FREEDOM RING CHOIR,

Nolan Williams, Jr., Music Producer

 

In a musical tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Monday, January 16, 2023 at 6 p.m.

(WASHINGTON)—The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Georgetown University celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a free, ticketed musical tribute, the Let Freedom Ring Celebration. The annual program, part of the Center’s Millennium Stage free daily performance series, features Leslie Odom, Jr. and the Let Freedom Ring Choir led by Music Producer Nolan Williams, Jr., on Monday, January 16, 2023 at 6 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

Georgetown University will present the annual John Thompson Jr. Legacy of a Dream Award to Paula Fitzgerald, executive director of Ayuda. Since 1973, Ayuda has served more than 150,000 low-income immigrants throughout Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. The award is given by Georgetown University to a local individual who exemplifies the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. For more information about this year’s awardee and the Legacy of a Dream Award, please visit: https://www.georgetown.edu/mlk-initiative/

Free tickets—up to two per person—will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis at the Hall of Nations box office, beginning at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, January 16. This performance will be close-captioned and will be live streamed on the Kennedy Center Facebook and YouTube pages, and on the website at www.kennedy-center.org.

ABOUT LESLIE ODOM, JR.

Leslie Odom, Jr. is a multifaceted, award-winning vocalist, songwriter, author, and actor. With a career that spans all performance genres, he has received recognition with Tony® and Grammy Awards® as well as Emmy® and, most recently, two Academy Award® nominations for his excellence and achievements in Broadway, television, film, and music. Odom most recently starred in and performed the songs of legendary singer Sam Cooke in the critically acclaimed Amazon film adaptation of One Night in Miami…, directed by Regina King. His portrayal of the soul icon was met with widespread praise and critical acclaim, earning him nominations for an Academy Award®, BAFTA Award, Critics’ Choice Award, Golden Globe Awards®, and Screen Actors Guild Awards, among others. King also enlisted Odom to write, compose, and perform the film’s original song, “Speak Now,” for which he was nominated for an Oscar and has since earned him a Critics’ Choice Award for Best Song as well as several other award nominations.

Odom recently starred in The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to David Chase’s Award-winning HBO series The Sopranos that was released in theaters and on HBO Max in October 2021, and he can also be heard voicing the character of ‘Owen Tillerman’ in Season 2 of the Apple TV+ animated musical-comedy series Central Park, for which he received an Emmy® nomination for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance in 2020. He also hosted CBS’s “The Tony Awards Present: Broadway’s Back!” special live concert event., during which he performed various musical numbers throughout the 2-hour celebration along with David Byrne, John Legend, Audra McDonald and many others. His other upcoming projects include Rian Johnson’s highly anticipated sequel, Knives Out 2; and David Gordon Green’s new Exorcist trilogy. Additional film and television credits include the Disney+ filmed musical performance of the original Broadway production of Hamilton, the limited series Love in the Time of Corona, which he executive produced and co-starred opposite Nicolette Robinson, Harriet, Murder on the Orient Express, Only, Red Tails, and Smash.

Best known for his breakout role as the original ‘Aaron Burr’ in the smash hit Broadway musical Hamilton, Odom won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and a Grammy Award ® as a principal soloist on the original cast recording for his performance. He made his Broadway debut in RENT at the age of 17. He also starred opposite Lin-Manuel Miranda and Karen Olivo in a 2014 City Center Encores! revival of Jonathan Larson’s Tick, Tick…Boom! In December 2017, Odom returned to the New York City stage in a solo concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center. The cabaret-style performance was crafted around signature songs and music that shaped this artist’s journey, all performed with a world-class band in front of a live audience. The show was filmed for broadcast as an hour-long PBS special as part of the 17-time Emmy Award®-winning series, Live from Lincoln Center, and premiered in April 2018.

A Grammy Award®-winning recording artist, Odom’s self-titled debut album was part-funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign and released in 2014 by Borderlight Entertainment, Inc. His new label home, S-Curve, re-released an expanded version with additional material in June 2016, and the album reached #1 on the Billboard Jazz charts and charted in the Billboard Top 200. In winter 2017, Odom topped the charts once again with the re-release of his second album and first holiday album, Simply Christmas, as a deluxe edition with new arrangements and new songs. Simply Christmas hit #1 on iTunes and the Billboard Jazz charts, #4 on the Billboard Holiday chart, and #31 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. Odom released his third full-length album and first of original material, Mr, in November 2019, and the following October teamed up with nine-time Grammy-nominated and multi-platinum artist Sia to debut a new version of standout track “Cold.” His critically acclaimed second holiday album, The Christmas Album, was released in November 2020. He has performed at the White House, Super Bowl, and on hallowed stages such as Lincoln Center, Rockefeller Center, and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

In March 2018, Odom added the title of author to his resume with the release of his book—Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher and Never Stop Learning. Written in the style of a commencement speech, the book brings together what Odom has learned in life so far, tapping into universal themes of starting something new, following your passions, discovering your own potential, and surrounding yourself with the right people. Failing Up is about unlocking your true potential and making your dreams come true even when it seems impossible. The book was published by Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers.

 

ABOUT THE AWARDEE

Paula Fitzgerald, Esq. is the executive director of Ayuda, a nonprofit that provides legal, social and language services to help low-income immigrants in the Washington, DC, area navigate the immigration and justice systems, heal from trauma and overcome language isolation.

As executive director, Fitzgerald leads Ayuda’s efforts to increase the availability of direct services for more than 8,000 immigrants annually. Under her leadership, Ayuda’s programs have expanded throughout the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia to reach more low-income immigrants. She began her work with Ayuda as an immigration staff attorney and quickly advanced to managing attorney of Ayuda’s Virginia office. Prior to joining Ayuda in 2008, Fitzgerald served as an immigration staff attorney at Hogar Hispano of the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington and as an associate at Hunton & Williams LLP.

Her immigration legal work focused on humanitarian relief for individuals, children and families. She also has extensive experience in family-based immigration matters, consular processing, waivers and NACARA cases. Fitzgerald credits her mother, a Colombian immigrant who was a social worker at a school with a large Latin American immigrant population, and her father, who worked as a psychologist for the mentally ill at Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital, for instilling the values that led to her work.

Fitzgerald earned a certificate in Nonprofit Management from Georgetown in 2016 and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. She graduated cum laude with a B.A. in psychology from James Madison University. Paula and her family have lived in northern Virginia for more than 40 years.

 

ABOUT LET FREEDOM RING CELEBRATION

As part of Georgetown University’s MLK Initiative: Let Freedom Ring!, this event builds on the success of the first joint program in January 2003, which featured the legendary Roberta Flack and attracted more than 5,000 patrons. The second, held in August of 2003, commemorated the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and featured actor, civil rights leader, and 2004 Kennedy Center Honoree, Ossie Davis. Past concerts have featured Jessye Norman in 2004; Aaron Neville in 2005; Yolanda Adams in 2006 and in 2016; Brian McKnight in 2007; Denyce Graves in 2008; Kennedy Center Honoree Aretha Franklin in 2009; India.Arie in 2010; Patti LaBelle in 2011; Bobby McFerrin in 2012; Smokey Robinson in 2013; Dionne Warwick in 2014; Natalie Cole in 2015; Gladys Knight in 2017; Vanessa Williams in 2018; and Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell in 2019, and Chaka Khan in 2020.

ABOUT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

Established in 1789 by Archbishop John Carroll, Georgetown is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university in the United States. Located in Washington D.C., Doha, Qatar, and around the world, Georgetown University is a leading academic and research institution, offering a unique educational experience that prepares the next generation of global citizens to lead and make a difference in the world. For more information about Georgetown University, visit Georgetown.edu or connect with Georgetown on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram.

Georgetown’s annual MLK Initiative honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through a series of academic, artistic, and extracurricular programs that examine Dr. King’s life and work and address the contemporary challenges our nation faces in order to fulfill his dream of justice and equality for all people. For more information visit: https://www.georgetown.edu/mlk-initiative/

ABOUT THE KENNEDY CENTER’S MILLENNIUM STAGE

Millennium Stage is a manifestation of the Kennedy Center’s mission and vision to welcome all to celebrate our collective cultural heritage in the most inclusive and accessible way possible. Millennium Stage offers free live community performances, streamed live Wednesday–Saturday each week and Sunday matinee film screenings in the Justice Forum.

The series aims to eliminate financial and geographical barriers to the arts and celebrate the human spirits and arts in our society, hopefully, ultimately leading to intercultural understanding. The programs are varied with artists from many different communities and mediums of performing arts so that we are showcasing the story of our country and our world.

A full list of our generous sponsors can be found online.

Discover the Kennedy Center on social media.

# # #

KENNEDY CENTER CONTACT:
Brendan Padgett
BEPadgett@kennedy-center.org

Camryn Hardy
CHardy@kennedy-center.org

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY CONTACT:

Georgetown University Media Relations
media@georgetown.edu
(202) 687-4328

From Paula:

“I am humbled to be selected as the 2023 Legacy of a Dream recipient. My mission has always been to make a lasting impact in the lives of others. I can think of no greater honor than being recognized alongside past recipients – fierce advocates and change-makers in our DMV community.”
— Paula Fitzgerald, Esq.

Executive Director, Ayuda

**************************

Congratulations Paula, my friend! 

As I have said many times, “you are totally awesome.” Your brilliance, creativity, “institutionalized kindness,” courage, integrity, work ethic, and leadership by example have built AYUDA into an ever more powerful and dynamic NGO that incorporates all that is best in the DMV area. AYUDA serves as a beacon of hope, humanity, and “grass roots support” for members of our community from around the world. 

You empower and inspire everyone around you, which is what great leadership is all about. You are also “one heck of a fundraiser and executive with a vision and the practical skills to make it happen!” And, you continue to recruit, attract, support, and nurture super-talented staff who embody and carry out AYUDA’s community values! 

I remember a function honoring the retiring chief executive of an organization I worked for in the past. That individual was highly competent, but not particularly “warm and fuzzy.” The MC, perhaps at a loss for words, turned to the honoree and said: “You were a great fiduciary!”

Being a “vet” of countless retirement ceremonies, I had expected the more traditional good natured “roast” or heartwarming personal anecdotes. At the time, I found the “fiduciary accolade” pretty weird.

Since then, however, carrying that “heightened awareness” with me, I have observed many “not so great fiduciaries.” So, Paula, I’m going to say it: “You are a great fiduciary!” 

AYUDA’s many dedicated donors can be assured that you treat each incoming dollar the way you treat each of AYUDA’s clients and staff: With great appreciation, deep respect, and a determination to unlock the full potential for the greater good.

Thanks for all you do for America and humanity, Paula! You indeed “exemplify the spirit of Dr. King!” 

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am a member of the AYUDA Advisory Council and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown Law. I have known Paula and admired her work and values since she first appeared before me as an attorney at the “Legacy” Arlington Immigration Court almost two decades ago.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-20-22

Related posts:

  1. WHEN ARTICLE III COURTS FAIL: U.S. “Orbits” Refugee Families To Dangerous Chaos In Guatemala Under Clearly Fraudulent “Safe Third Country” Arrangements As Feckless U.S. Courts Fail To Enforce Constitutional Due Process & U.S. Asylum Laws In Face Of Trump Regime’s Contemptuous Scofflaw Conduct!
  2. 🏴‍☠️CLOSING THE BORDER TO LEGAL ASYLUM SEEKERS IS A VIOLATION OF BOTH DOMESTIC & INTERNATIONAL LAW — It’s Neither Something To Tout (Biden Administration) Nor A Solution (GOP) (Except, Perhaps, In The “Hitlerian” Sense) — Our Inability To Solve A Humanitarian Situation By Acting Lawfully, Sensibly, & Humanely Is A Sign Of Gross National Weakness Spurred By Unwillingness To See The Human Tragedies We Are Promoting! — And The Lousy, Misleading, & Tone-Deaf Reporting By The Some Of The “Mainstream Media” Is Making It Worse! — Leon Krauze & Suzanne Gamboa With Simple Truths About Human Migration That Neither Pols Nor Nativists Want You To Hear! — PLUS BONUS COVERAGE: Friday Mini-Essay: “Degrading Ourselves As A Nation Won’t Stop Human Migration”
  3. ☠️⚰️🏴‍☠️HAITI IS NOT “SAFE,” & THE PERVASIVE GANG VIOLENCE APPEARS TO BE POLITICALLY MOTIVATED! — “They raped women, burned homes and killed dozens of people, including children, chopping up their bodies with machetes and throwing their remains to pigs. . . . It was organized by senior Haitian officials, who provided weapons and vehicles to gang members to punish people in a poor area protesting government corruption!” — So, Why Are Biden, Harris, Mayorkas, & Garland Illegally Returning Refugees There Without Hearing Their Asylum Claims?  👎🏽🤮
  4. 🤮👎🏽ULTIMATE HIPOCRACY: EVEN AS AMERICA FINALLY CELEBRATES JUNETEENTH HOLIDAY, DRED SCOTT & INSTITUTIONALIZED RACIST DEHUMANIZATION REMAIN REALITIES FOR BLACKS & OTHER MIGRANTS OF COLOR AT EOIR & DHS — Imprisonment Without Trial, Bogus Bonds, Mistreatment In The New American Gulag, Jim Crow “Courts,” No Rule Of Law,  Still Realities For Those Of Color Exercising Legal Rights In Broken System!

⚖️🗽👍🏼👨🏾‍⚖️ BREAKING: US DISTRICT JUDGE EMMET G. SULLIVAN VACATES USG’S TITLE 42 ABUSE, ORDERS BIDEN ADMINISTRATION TO ENFORCE ASYLUM LAW! — Refuses Stay — Rips Knowingly Illegal & Life Threatening Actions By Corrupt Officials Of Both Administrations!  — Fraudulent Public Health “Pretext” Finally Exposed!

Hon. Emmet G. Sullivan
Hon. Emmet G. Sullivan
US District Judge
DC

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/15/border-ruling-title-42/

By Maria Sacchetti and Spencer S. Hsu

November 15, 2022 at 4:46 p.m. ET

A federal judge on Tuesday struck down a Donald Trump-era policy used by U.S. border officials to quickly expel migrants because of the covid pandemic, saying the ban had little proven benefit to public health even as it shunted migrants to dangerous places.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in the District of Columbia vacated the order known as Title 42, effectively restoring asylum seekers’ access to the borders for the first time since the Trump administration issued it during the earliest days of the pandemic.

The decision — which takes effect immediately — knocks down one of the last remaining barriers to asylum from the Trump administration, advocates for immigrants said. It also poses an immediate logistical challenge for the Biden administration after two consecutive years of record apprehensions on the U.S.-Mexico border, with the possibility that the numbers could grow.

Biden officials have long worried about a mass rush to the border creating an emergency similar to the one that occurred in Del Rio, Texas, in Sept. 2021, when thousands of migrants crossed illegally and overwhelmed U.S. agents, creating a squalid camp on the banks of the Rio Grande that embarrassed the Biden administration.

Sullivan’s ruling also comes days after top border official Chris Magnus resigned under pressure after clashing with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security had no immediate response to the ruling.

The American Civil Liberties Union, one of the organizations that brought the lawsuit on behalf of migrants, said Sullivan’s decision to vacate the Title 42 policy means the policy ends for all migrants, including families and adults traveling without children.

“Title 42 unfortunately had a long shelf life but has finally been ended, and that will mean enormous relief to desperate asylum seekers,” said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt.

Sullivan also made clear that that he would not stay his order pending appeal, leaving it to a higher court to do so if the Biden administration sought more time to address the ruling. 

. . . .

Key Quote: 

Sullivan wrote that the federal officials knew the order “would likely expel migrants to locations with a ‘high probability’ of ‘persecution, torture, violent assaults, or rape’ ” — and did so anyway.

“It is unreasonable for the CDC to assume that it can ignore the consequences of any actions it chooses to take in the pursuit of fulfilling its goals,” Sullivan wrote. “It is undisputed that the impact on migrants was indeed dire.”

***************

The horrific consequences for lawful asylum seekers subjected to this unlawful policy have indeed been “dire:” rape, assault, kidnapping, beating, torture, extortion, starvation, illness, sickness, death, family separation, despair, to name a few. 

By contrast, there have been NO consequences for Stephen Miller and the other Trump Administration officials who fabricated and directed this ruse on the justice system and attack on humanity and the rule of law! Nor have there been any consequences for lower level officials who “went along to get along” with what they knew or should have known to be deadly abuses of our laws. 

Additionally, Biden officials who continued to violate the law and even concocted ways of expanding its illegal and immoral use have escaped accountability and continue in their jobs. DOJ lawyers who failed to do “due diligence” and defended a policy based on pretext, misrepresentations of fact, racism, and xenophobia have also continued to operate in the “ethical twilight zone” that normally would have serious professional consequences!

Of course the whole history of the Title 42 charade ☠️🤮has been one of one step forward and three steps back. The corrupt decision-making extends to unqualified right-wing zealots with lifetime sinecures on the Federal Article III bench and to equally corrupt GOP state AG’s for their dishonest scheme to force continued illegal Title 42  expulsions. 

So, despite these “crimes against humanity,” don’t expect that “heads will roll!” Given the current sorry state of our Federal Courts and the DOJ, it’s not certain that Judge Sullivan’s order will actually have effect or that asylum seekers will ever get the fundamentally fair and humane treatment to which they are entitled.

But, I am certain that this will eventually go down in history as one of the most disgraceful intentional abrogations of law, with the most drastic consequences for humanity and our nation’s reputation, in 21st Century legal history!

It’s also worthy of note that rather than getting the asylum system properly staffed and trained, bringing in Immigration Judges with the required expertise, installing a BIA of expert judges capable of issuing correct, realistic, generous, practical asylum precedents, working cooperatively with the private bar to facilitate representation, and developing an orderly process for resettlement (away from the border) of asylum applicants who pass credible fear, Garland, Mayorkas, and a White House officials have dithered away two years of time without getting the necessary robust, fair, expert, efficient, timely asylum adjudication system up and running!

The advice and pleas of experts and advocates have been “tuned out” or ignored by those in charge! Now, as all of us predicted, the “chickens have come home to roost” for the Administration’s indifferent, incompetent, and lackadaisical  approach to the biggest racial justice and human rights crisis facing our nation.

Thanks Judge Sullivan! Thanks ACLU! Apologies to the hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers wronged by the cowardly failure of America to uphold our laws, Constitution, and international obligations — that “subset” of victims who are still alive despite our Government’s grotesque misconduct!

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-15-22

Related posts:

  1. CORRUPT, CHILD ABUSING, RACIST IMMIGRATION BUREAUCRACY 🏴‍☠️☠️🤮⚰️👎🏻 MUST BE REPLACED WITH PROFESSIONAL WORKFORCE COMMITTED TO DUE PROCESS, RULE OF LAW, HUMAN DIGNITY! — “CRUELTY TO migrant children, a trademark of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, did not cease when officials reversed course in the face of public outrage two years ago and stopped wrenching toddlers, tweens and teens from their parents — with no plan or process to reunite them. It has continued apace under cover of the pandemic . . . .”
  2. 🇺🇸⚖️🗽HON. JEFFREY S. CHASE: UNETHICAL, 🏴‍☠️WHITE NATIONALIST,⚰️ MISOGYNIST 🤮“WAR CRIMINAL” ☠️JEFFREY ROSEN TAKES COWARDLY🐓 PARTING SHOT AT REFUGEE🦸🏻 WOMEN! — DOJ Clean-Out, 🧹🪠🧻Fumigation, & Restaffing With Ethical Attorneys Can’t Begin Soon Enough!
  3. ICRC: “Migration is not going to stop. If you try to prevent it or strictly regulate it, people start to pile up at the borders, which is happening in Mexico and other countries.”
  4. WOW, HERE’S A SURPRISE: MANY KIDS FLEEING VIOLENCE IN THE NORTHERN TRIANGLE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT BIDEN BORDER POLICIES — They Are Just Trying To Save Their Lives!

🇺🇸🗽THE TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOTS: Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) & Rep-Elect Hillary Scholten (D-MI) Are Models For A Durable Democratic Majority! — Humane Values, Active Listening, Practical Problem-Solving, Community Unity, Integrity, Individual Freedom, Responsibility, Organization, Persistence, Moral Courage, Indefatigable Energy, Amazing Work Ethic, Unselfish Public Service, Kindness, Compassion, Caring, Never Forgetting  Where You Came From = A Winning Formula That Other Dems Could Emulate!

Abigail Spanberger
Rep. Abigail Spanberger
D-VA
PHOTO: Twitter

From Jennifer Rubin @ WashPost on Abigail:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/09/spanberger-virginia-win-centrist-democrat/

. . . .

During her victory remarks on Tuesday night, Spanberger spoke of her “deep and abiding love for the country” and a “profound sense of responsibility.” The former CIA agent reiterated that the country was founded on “a dream” that it need not bound by the past or be ruled by kings and queens. Quoting Benjamin Franklin’s admonition that the constitutional convention delivered a republic “if you can keep it,” she declared, “We must all work hard to keep it.”

As a moderate, Spanberger has managed to balance fidelity to Democratic causes such as investment in green energy and the preservation of abortion rights with an independent, reform-minded streak that sometimes put her at odds with party leadership. (Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for example, has not allowed a floor vote on Spanberger’s bill that would ban House members and their spouses from holding individual stocks.)

With this win, Spanberger reaffirms her status as a rising star in the party. Her formula — bipartisan problem solving, strong national security credentials, anti-corruption crusading and support for women’s reproductive rights — has proved successful. But she also had another advantage: a Democratic record of legislative success, including the infrastructure bill, the Chips and Science Act, an expansion of veterans’ health care and measures to reduce prescription drug prices.

. . . .

Hillary Scholten
Rep-Elect Hillary Scholten
Democrat
Michigan 3rd District

Here’s what Hillary had to say in her victory statement:

It’s a new day in West Michigan. I have officially been elected to represent West Michigan in Congress.

Make no mistake: this is a historic victory. We flipped a crucial House seat from red to blue, elected West Michigan’s first-ever Democratic Congresswoman, and sent a strong message that will not tolerate anti-democratic, anti-American extremism here.

I am a proud fourth-generation West Michigander. I know we’re a community that values service over self, building up over tearing down, and unity over division. We’re a community that cares for its poor, supports its vulnerable, and welcomes the stranger. A community where differences are not feared, but valued.

My promise to you is that I will never forget where I come from or who I work for. I will always show up for my community and look forward to getting to work serving West Michiganders.

Forever thankful,
Hillary

******************

By sharp contrast, the GOP has no known values: divide, bully, lie, demean, hate, misinform, blame, deny, discriminate, humiliate, oppress, smear, shame. Those aren’t values: just highly negative attributes!

The GOP did claim concern about inflation and the economy. But, they offered no coherent plan for addressing it in any practical, bi-partisan manner.

Instead, they promised to wreck Government, mindlessly oppose anything Biden proposes, and even threatened to collapse the worldwide economy by “playing chicken” with the artificially-created “debt ceiling.” 

To the extent that any GOP candidate could explain their economic “plan” (most couldn’t or wouldn’t), it was a muddled variation of proven-to-fail “trickle down economics.” Yup, the same nonsense and bureaucratic doublespeak that has destroyed the British economy and led the Conservatives to be a laughingstock of “unstable government by clowns🤡!” Basically slash programs that benefit everybody to reward fat-cats with more un-needed and unfunded tax breaks. 

Do we really need to make guys like Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, McConnell, and the “geniuses” who invented “cryptocurrency” richer? Make sense? Of course not! I doubt that there is a shortage of “investment capital” in the U.S. right now. 

Is preventing IRS from processing returns in a timely manner and collecting back-taxes owed really the key to reducing budget deficits? Preposterous! Yet GOP pols say so!

Undoubtedly, we need prudence, responsibility, and focus in government spending — from both parties. As working mothers, Abigail and Hillary know a thing or two about making responsible fiscal decisions and insuring that their constituents get the most bang for each hard-earned tax dollar spent. And neither is afraid to speak out against “fraud, waste, and abuse” in any and all forms!

As former Federal civil servants, they recognize the need for cutting waste and getting more value for each dollar. In that respect, I think that requiring competent management, accountability, expertise, innovative customer service, and focused enforcement in the hugely expensive yet highly wasteful, ineffective, and often counterproductive immigration bureaucracy would be a good starting point for achieving much more without drastic resource increases.

It doesn’t hurt that Abigail and Hillary are really really smart and use their brains to help others and society rather than for self-aggrandizement or to lord it over others. Tough as they are, they are also nice, kind, and compassionate. In other words, non-ideologues.

Go, Abigail and Hillary! Make America the best that we can be: A diverse society and powerful nation where everyone can reach their full potential, independence, and self-sufficiency, not just the “chosen few!”

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

11-12-22

Related posts:

  1. 🇺🇸🗽👍🏼🌟⭐️💫♥️ COMING TO D.C. IN JAN! — REP-ELECT HILLARY SCHOLTEN (D-MI) BRINGS “DOWN HOME” VALUES, COURGE, SMARTS, INTEGRITY, REAL PATRIOTISM, & PROVEN PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS TO A CONGRESS THAT URGENTLY NEEDS THEM — “She’s One Tough, Gutsy ‘NDPA Mom!’” — First Dem To Win In Grand Rapids In Over Three Decades!
  2. ⚖️🇺🇸👍🏼🗽DEAN KEVIN JOHNSON’S SUCCINCT RESPONSE TO GREG ABBOTT’S PREDICTABLE SOUTHERN BORDER BS IS WORTH A READ! — PLUS: ARELIS HERNANDEZ OF WASHPOST WITH SOME MUCH-NEEDED TRUTH & PERSPECTIVE FROM THOSE ACTUALLY LIVING ON THE SOUTHERN BORDER: “We need more lawyers and judges, not more troops or technology.”
  3. 🏴‍☠️🤯👎🏽 CRUMBLING INSTITUTIONS: OF COURSE THE OUT OF TOUCH, POLITICIZED SUPREMES’ GOP MAJORITY IS SHEDDING LEGITIMACY AS THEY IMPLEMENT AN EXTREME FAR-RIGHT POLITICAL AGENDA WITHOUT LEGAL BASIS! — C.J. Roberts’s Incredibly Lame Claim Otherwise Proves It!
  4. 🇺🇸🗽👍🏼😎MAKING AMERICA BETTER, FINALLY: “Mr. Biden has laid out an immigration program that would genuinely put America first.” (WashPost) — No Wonder GOP Anti-American White Nationalists Like Tom Cotton Are Apoplectic & Spouting Their Racist, White Elitist Nonsense!

🇺🇸🗽👍🏼🌟⭐️💫♥️ COMING TO D.C. IN JAN! — REP-ELECT HILLARY SCHOLTEN (D-MI) BRINGS “DOWN HOME” VALUES, COURGE, SMARTS, INTEGRITY, REAL PATRIOTISM, & PROVEN PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS TO A CONGRESS THAT URGENTLY NEEDS THEM — “She’s One Tough, Gutsy ‘NDPA Mom!’” — First Dem To Win In Grand Rapids In Over Three Decades!

Hillary Scholten
Rep-Elect Hillary Scholten
Democrat
Michigan 3rd District — “She’s intellectually powerful, value-driven, dynamic, ‘tough as nails,’ yet always kind and compassionate!”

Many, many, many congrats, endless appreciation, and thanks for what you have accomplished, my friend!

https://mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2022/11/hillary-scholten-defeats-trump-backed-john-gibbs-for-west-michigan-congressional-seat.html

Hillary Scholten defeats Trump-backed John Gibbs for West Michigan congressional seat

  • Updated: Nov. 09, 2022, 4:05 a.m.|Published: Nov. 09, 2022, 2:11 a.m.

21

Hillary Scholten (D) and John Gibbs (R) face off for Michigan 3rd Congressional District seat

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Hillary Scholten will become the first Democrat to represent Grand Rapids in Congress since 1977 after defeating Trump-backed Republican John Gibbs in a race that’s drawn national attention.

Scholten, an immigration attorney from Grand Rapids who worked in the U.S. Department of Justice during the Obama administration, defeated Gibbs 53% to 44%, according to unofficial results from the Associated Press.

The AP called the race for Scholten just before 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, with 63% of votes counted.

Scholten campaigned as a common-sense, problem-solving candidate who supports abortion rights, lowering the cost of health care and prescription drugs, and protecting Social Security and Medicare. Scholten cast Gibbs as an extreme candidate focused overturning the 2020 election results and “doing Donald Trump’s bidding on West Michigan.”

Scholten could not immediately be reached for comment early on Wednesday, Nov. 9. Her campaign spokesperson, Larkin Parker, said Scholten would be live-streaming a speech this morning.

Gibbs took to Twitter after AP called the race, saying “we believe this call is premature.”

“There are plenty more votes outstanding and we expect the vote count to go well into Wednesday,” said Gibbs, who grew up in Lansing and served in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during Trump’s presidency.

The last time a Democrat was elected to represent Grand Rapids in Congress was 1974. Attorney Richard Vander Veen was elected that year, in what was then the 5th Congressional District. He replaced U.S. Rep. Gerald Ford, who resigned from the seat to become vice president during Richard Nixon’s second term.

. . . .

After the polls closed Tuesday, Scholten spoke to supporters at Paddock Place, a restaurant and event venue in Grand Rapids. She described her campaign as a unifying effort to draw in voters from both sides of the political spectrum, as opposed to the “divisiveness” of her opponent’s campaign.

“This campaign has, and continues to build, something new here in West Michigan,” Scholten said. “A new political home for people on the right, the left, the center, who are tired of politics as usual, who are ready to cast aside the old frame of division, ‘us versus them,’ and join hands together for a better, brighter West Michigan for all of us.”

. . . .

**************************

Hillary has always been a widely respected “bridge builder.” She’s intellectually powerful, value-driven, dynamic, “tough as nails,” yet always kind and compassionate!

To my knowledge, she’s the first NDPA stalwart and first BIA employee to be elected to Congress. I hope she inspires others who share her values to enter the political arena and help those of us who believe in rational, practical, people and values-centered government and equal justice for all to save America from extremist ideologues!

🇺🇸 Congrats again and Due Process Forever! Practical, human values, and the courage to stand-up for them against lies and tyranny CAN win elections!

PWS

11-09-22

Related posts:

  1. 🇺🇸🗽IN COMPETITIVE MICH 3RD, FORMER BIA ATTORNEY HILLARY SCHOLTEN REACHES VOTERS WITH VALUES-BASED CAMPAIGN FOCUSING ON LISTENING, SOLVING PROBLEMS, ADDRESSING LOCAL ISSUES, & PROTECTING INDIVIDUAL LIBERTIES! — Lissandra Villa Huerta @ BoGlo Reports!
  2. 🏴‍☠️🤯👎🏽 CRUMBLING INSTITUTIONS: OF COURSE THE OUT OF TOUCH, POLITICIZED SUPREMES’ GOP MAJORITY IS SHEDDING LEGITIMACY AS THEY IMPLEMENT AN EXTREME FAR-RIGHT POLITICAL AGENDA WITHOUT LEGAL BASIS! — C.J. Roberts’s Incredibly Lame Claim Otherwise Proves It!
  3. DEMS INTRODUCE BIDEN’S COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION BILL — “U.S. CITIZENSHIP ACT OF 2021” — Lots Of Good Ideas, But Likely DOA In Narrowly Divided Congress! — Judge Garland Must Begin Immigration Court Reforms NOW!
  4. 🇺🇸⚖️🗽NY TIMES EDITORIAL MAKES THE CASE FOR ARTICLE I — “It’s hard to imagine a more glaring conflict of interest than the nation’s top law-enforcement agency running a court system in which it regularly appears as a party.” — Garland’s Abject Failure To Fix EOIR, Bring In Experts Highlighted, As Constitutional Due Process, Ethical, Human Rights, Racial Justice, Gender Equity, Diversity, & Management Farce @ EOIR Continues Under His Disgraceful Lack Of Awareness & Failure Of Courageous, Progressive Leadership!  — Progressives Can’t Remain Silent, Must “Raise Hell” 👹With Biden Administration About Garland’s Lousy Performance @ EOIR, As He Continues To Stack Immigration “Judiciary” With “Miller Lite Holdovers” 🤮 To The Exclusion of Progressive Experts Who Helped Put Biden Administration In Office!

🤯BILL FRELICK @ THE HILL BLASTS BIDEN’S SCOFFLAW, ELITIST MISTREATMENT OF VENEZUELAN REFUGEES! — Welcome A Few Of The Well-To-Do, Give Others In Need The Screw! 🔩☠️ — Whatever Happened To The Refugee Act of 1980 & The Rule Of Law?

Statue of Liberty
Too many Biden Administration Immigration officials appear to share Stephen Miller’s “upside down” view of the Statue of Liberty, in whole or in part! Why can’t they just follow the Refugee Act of 1980 and establish the robust, timely, generous legal approach to refugees and asylum seekers that best serves America?
Bill Frelick
Bill Frelick
Director
Refugee and Migrant Rights Division
Human Rights Watch

https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/3704714-bidens-new-plan-no-help-for-desperate-venezuelan-refugees/

Refugees are people who flee for their lives. Escape from danger and abuse is usually chaotic, sudden, desperate. The Biden administration’s rollout of its new policy for Venezuelan refugees seems oblivious to this refugee reality and risks doing more harm than good.

. . . .

Announcing the program on Oct. 12, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said Venezuelans who enter irregularly “will be returned to Mexico.”

He didn’t mention — and appeared to disregard — U.S. law, which recognizes that anyone who arrives in the United States has the right to seek asylum “whether or not at a designated port of arrival” and “irrespective of such alien’s status.”

The impact of this announcement, “effective immediately,” was the summary return to Mexico without examination of their asylum claims of any Venezuelans entering the United States without authorization. Mexico has given no assurances that it will examine their refugee claims or provide asylum to those who fear return to Venezuela. In fact, the 4,050 Venezuelans expelled to Mexico since the implementation of the policy have been given visas valid for only one week and instructed to leave the country.

. . . .

With the Biden administration’s plan in effect, we might as well apply a blowtorch to Emma Lazarus’s welcoming poem at the foot of the Statue of Liberty and chisel in a new message: “Give me your well-rested, your well-to-do, your properly ticketed jet-setters yearning to breathe free.”

Bill Frelick is the refugee rights director at Human Rights Watch. Follow him on Twitter @BillFrelick.

************************

Read Bill’s complete op-ed act the link. Bill is one of many “practical experts” who would do a much better job than current Administration politicos in establishing and running a refugee and asylum program that would comply with the law,  due process, human dignity, and America’s best interests. Why is Biden following the lead of his “clueless (and spineless) crew?”

The Refugee Act of 1980 was enacted and amended to deal with these situations! Robust, realistic refugee programs outside the U.S. should encourage many refugees to apply, be screened abroad, and admitted legally. 

Other refugees arriving at our border can be promptly screened for credible fear. Those who fail that test can be summarily removed in accordance with existing law. 

Those who pass that test should have access to counsel and receive timely, expert adjudications, with full appeal rights, under the generous “well founded fear” (1 in 10 chance) international standard established by the Refugee Act. See, e.g., INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca (Supremes); Matter of Mogharrabi (BIA).

It’s not “rocket science!” With dynamic, experienced refugee experts running the system and “practical scholars” with expertise in refugee processing and human rights laws serving as USCIS Asylum Officers and EOIR judges at the trial and appellate levels the legal system should be flexible enough to deal with all refugee situations in an orderly manner.

Many, probably a majority, of today’s asylum seekers should be granted asylum and admitted to the U.S. in full legal status, authorized to work, and on their way to green cards and eventual citizenship. Like those admitted from abroad, they could also be made eligible for certain resettlement assistance to facilitate integration into American communities who undoubtedly will benefit from their presence.

The more robust, realistic, and timely our overseas refugee programs become, the fewer refugees who will be forced to apply for asylum at our borders. Also, real, bold, dynamic humanitarian leadership, including accepting our fair share of refugees and asylees, could persuade other countries signatory to the Geneva Refugee Convention to do likewise.

No insurmountable backlogs; no bewildered individuals wandering around the U.S. in limbo waiting for hearings that will never happen; few “no shows;” no long-term detention; no botched, biased “any reason to deny” decisions from unqualified officers and judges leading to years of litigation cluttering our legal system, no diverting Border Patrol resources from real law enforcement, no refugees huddled under bridges or sitting on street corners in Mexico!

It’s not “pie in the sky!” It’s the way our legal system could and should work with competent leadership and the very best available adjudicators and judges! It would support the proper, important role of refugees as an essential component of LEGAL IMMIGRATION, not an “exception” or “loophole” as racists and nativists like to falsely argue.

Instead of demonstrating the competence and integrity to use existing law to deal with refugee and asylum situations, the Biden Administration resorts to ad hoc political gimmicks. Essentially, the “RA80” has been repealed “administratively.” Effectively, we’re back to the “ad hoc” arbitrary approaches we used prior to ‘80 (which I worked on during the Ford Administration, and where I recollect I first heard of Bill Frelick). 

I doubt that the late Senator Ted Kennedy, former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman, and the rest of the group who helped shepherd the Refugee Act of 1980 through Congress would have thought that using Border Patrol Agents as Asylum Officers or packing the Immigration Courts and the BIA with judges prone to deny almost every asylum claim, regardless of facts or proper legal standards, was the “key to success!”

Congress specifically intended to eliminate the use of parole to deal with refugees except in extremely unusual circumstances, not present here. Biden’s latest ill-advised gimmick violates that premise. It’s totally inexcusable, as the refugee flow from Venezuela is neither new nor unpredictable. I was granting Venezuelan asylum cases before I retired in June 2016. Even then, there were legions of documentation, much of it generated by the USG, condemning the repressive regime in Venezuela and documenting the persecution of those who resisted!

A better AG would say “No” to these improper evasions of existing law. But, we have Merrick “What Me Worry” Garland! His botching of the Immigration Courts has been combined with a gross failure to stand up for equal justice for migrants (particularly those of color) across the board! America and refugees deserve better from our chief lawyer.

The Refugee Act of 1980 actually provides all the tools and flexibility the Biden Administration needs to establish order on the border and properly and fairly process refugees and asylees. Why won’t they use them?

Alfred E. Neumann
AG Merrick Garland has “looked the other way” while the Biden Administration flaunts applicable protection laws in and outside the U.S. He also runs a dysfunctional “court system” where anti-asylum bias, worst practices, poorly qualified decision makers, and grotesque inconsistencies undermine the legal rights of asylum seekers and other refugees. Doesn’t America deserve more competence from its top lawyer?
PHOTO: Wikipedia Commons

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-28-22

Related posts:

  1. HOW “AMERICA’S KILLER COURTS” PROMOTE “CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY” — HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: TRUMP & HIS WHITE NATIONALIST SYCOPHANTS & TOADIES TOUT LAWLESS POLICIES THAT VIOLATE LEGAL OBLIGATIONS & HELP KILL, RAPE, TORTURE THOSE RETURNED TO EL SALVADOR — Supremes & Article III Judiciary Complicit In Gross Human Rights Violations! 
  2. GROSS NATIONAL DISGRACE: “A Fucking Disaster That Is Designed to Fail”: How Trump Wrecked America’s Immigration Courts — Fernanda Echavarri Reports For Mother Jones On How Our Failed Justice System Daily Abuses The Most Vulnerable While Feckless Legislators &   Smugly Complicit Article III Judges Look On & Ignore The Human Carnage They Are Enabling — “ Two days after US immigration officials sent her to Tijuana, she was raped.”
  3. EOIR TARGETS UNACCOMPANIED KIDS FOR DEPORATION RAILROAD!
  4. ⚖️🗽🧑🏽‍⚖️COURTS OF APPEALS CONTINUE TO THROW ROTTEN TOMATOES 🍅 @ BIA’S ANTI-ASYLUM BIAS — Basic Analytical, Legal Errors Continue From Weaponized, Non-Expert “Star Chamber” ☠️ Posing As ”Tribunal!” — Judge Garland Must Fix This Inexcusable, Unnecessary, Systemic Failure Now! — Justice For Persons Of Color & Migrants Can’t “Wait For Godot!”

☠️💀⚰️DEATH VALLEY DAYS: ASYLUM SEEKERS & LAWYERS FACE HARSH CONDITIONS IN QUEST FOR ASYLUM IN GARLAND’S DYSFUNCTIONAL EOIR — Bad Law, Bias, Incompetence, Inconsistency, & Indifference To Humanity Among Obstacles — The Majority Perish Along The Way! — “Courtside” Takes You “Inside The Numbers” Of TRAC’s “New Look” IJ Asylum Reports — New Format, But Same Old Broken & Unfair System!

Death Valley
Asylum seekers and lawyers must cross hostile territory, with a dearth of naturally-occurring due process, to successfully negotiate Garland’s dysfunctional EOIR. Most never make it!
Death Valley
Creative Commons

Here’s the TRAC “New Format” IJ Asylum Report:

https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/judgereports/

**********************************

INSIDE THE NUMBERS FOR THE TRAC 10-09-22 IJ REPORT

NOTE: Does not account for: IJs no longer on the bench; IJs appearing in more than one location; differences among detained, non-detained dockets; profiles of high and non-high-denying courts excluded locations with fewer than four IJs listed. No guarantee of accuracy for my “hand count” — but, in accordance with the old government motto, “I did the best I could under the circumstances.”

  • Precipitous unexplained rise in nationwide denial rate since FY 2012, from 44.5% to 63.3%, even though human rights conditions in most so-called “sending countries” remained horrible and in some cases significantly deteriorated. See for FY2012 stats, https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/306/
  • Lots of “Nay-Sayers” on the Immigration Bench:
    • 92 IJs denied asylum 90% or more of the time.
    • Another 94 IJs denied 85-90% of the time.
    • Total of 186 “High Deniers” — those who denied 85% or more — significantly (21.7% or more) above already inexplicably high 63.3% national rate.
  • High Denying Courts (majority of IJs listed denied 85%+)
    • Atlanta (including ATD-Detained) (10 of 10 IJs)
    • Charlotte (6 of 8 IJs)
    • Conroe (5 of 9 IJs)
    • Houston (19 of 22 IJs)
    • Houston-Greenspoint (4 of 5 IJs)
    • Jena (6 of 6 IJs)
    • LA – North (8 of 11 IJs)
    • Los Fresnos (5 of 6 IJs)
    • Lumpkin (5 of 7 IJs)
    • Memphis (6 of 11 IJs)
    • Miami (20 of 31 IJs)
    • Miamii – Krome (7 of 9 IJs) 
  • Non-High-Denying Courts (all, or almost all, listed IJs denied less than 85%)
    • Adelanto (5 IJs)
    • Arlington (3 of 25 IJs High Deniers)
    • Bloomington (1 of 13 IJs High Denier)
    • Boston (1 of 15 IJs High Denier)
    • Baltimore (1 of 16 IJs High Denier)
    • Batavia (1 of 4 IJs High Denier)
    • Chicago (1 of 16 IJs High Denier)
    • Denver (2 of 8 IJs High Deniers)
    • Detroit (4 IJs)
    • Elizabeth (5 IJs)
    • Imperial (5 IJs)
    • New York (46 IJs, 0 High Deniers) **
    • New York Detained (17 IJs, 1 High Denier) 
    • Newark (3 of 16 IJs High Deniers)
    • Otay Mesa (7 IJs)
    • Pearsall (5 IJs)
    • Philadelphia (8 IJs)
    • Portland OR (4 IJs)
    • San Francisco (2 of 27 High Deniers)
    • Seattle (8 IJs)
    • Tacoma (5 IJs)
    • Van Nuys (1 of 7 IJs High Denier)
  • Telling stats:  99.1%, 97.4%, 94.3% 90.4% — Asylum denial rates for four BIA Appellate Immigration Judges listed in the chart who continue to serve on Garland’s BIA. No wonder asylum seekers are saddled with bad law and sloppy, one-sided appellate review within Garland’s dysfunctional EOIR.
  • Best courts for asylum seekers: Generally  in the Northeast and Northern California: Arlington, Boston, Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, Newark, San Francisco, Chicago.
  • Worst places for asylum seekers: Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte, Houston, Louisiana.
  • Mind-blowing stat: Compare the performance of IJs in Arlington and Baltimore with those in Charlotte, all within the 4th Circuit.
  • Observations:
    • New York, followed by San Francisco, appear to be the largest and best functioning courts with respect to actually following the generous standards for asylum seekers set forth by the Supremes in Cardoza-Fonseca, enunciated (but seldom followed) by the BIA in Mogharrabi, and to a large extent incorporated into sporadically enforced regulations.
    • In NY, 46 IJs, 0 High Deniers, 24 listed IJs granted at least 50% or more of the cases, denial rates ranging from 7.1% to 83.5%, still a rather mind-boggling range.The 24 IJs in the 50% or more grant range would seem like a good place for Garland to look for a model for rebuilding EOIR as a fair, due-process-oriented, subject matter expert court. He doesn’t seem interested in doing that, but it could be done with better leadership.
    • Although generally one would expect Detention Courts to be in the “High Denier” category, that’s not always the case. Courts like NY-Detained, Elizabeth, Adelanto, Otay Mesa, and Pearsall, all had some significant asylum grant rates. Conversely, several predominantly non-detained courts like Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, and Houston were unseemly “dead zones” for asylum seekers. Garland’s failure to address the gross inconsistencies and abuses of asylum law going on in those and other “High Denier Courts” is disgraceful.
  • Overall, this is a statistical picture of a failed and dysfunctional court system where critical life or death decisions depend more on where you are and who your judge or BIA “panel” is than on the quality of the evidence or the state of the law. It has failed to deliver on its promise of being a court of widely acknowledged subject matter experts who will guarantee due process, fundamental fairness, and best judicial practices for all on some of the most important and life-determining decisions in American jurisprudence. It’s bad; and not significantly improving under the Dems!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-28-22

Related posts:

  1. 🆘🤮IS 11TH CIR. GROWING WEARY OF GARLAND’S SCOFFLAW BIA? —Two Trips To The Circuit, & The BIA Still Violates Own Regulations, Ignores Precedent, Spouts Gibberish While OIL’s Defense Of This Nonsense & Malfeasance By EOIR Raises Serious Ethical Questions! — THAMOTAR v. U.S. ATT’Y GEN. — Garland’s Dysfunctional & Systematically Unjust Courts Undermine OUR Democracy☠️ — Demand An IMMEDIATE End To The Scofflaw Nonsense🤡 🧹 At OUR Justice Department! 🏴‍☠️
  2. 👍🏼⚖️🗽MAJORITY OF ASYLUM SEEKERS WIN THEIR CASES, EVEN IN A BROKEN & BIASED  SYSTEM INTENTIONALLY STACKED AGAINST THEM — But, Only, If They Can Get To A “Merits Adjudication!” — Nativist Lies, Myths, Driving USG Policies Exposed! — Why USCIS & EOIR Self-Created Backlogs Primarily Shaft Those Deserving Legal Protection Of Some Type!
  3. WOW, HERE’S A SURPRISE: MANY KIDS FLEEING VIOLENCE IN THE NORTHERN TRIANGLE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT BIDEN BORDER POLICIES — They Are Just Trying To Save Their Lives!
  4. 🏴‍☠️BIA’S MISOGYNISTIC, ANTI-ASYLUM, IGNORE THE EXPERTS & THE EVIDENCE APPROACH 🤮 REBUKED AGAIN — 9th Cir. Slams BIA Big Time In Rodriguez Tornes v. Garland! — “Concurring, Judge Paez wrote that in addition to ignoring evidence that Rodriguez was targeted on account of her feminist political opinion, the Board also ignored extensive record evidence from a leading authority on domestic violence that directly rejected the Board’s premise that domestic violence is presumed to be motivated by nothing more than the private dynamics of a ‘personal relationship.’”

🗽PRANTL & YALE-LOEHR @ NY DAILY NEWS: Private Refugee Sponsorship — An Idea Whose Time Has Come! — But, The Biden Administration Has Turned Its Back On The Legal & Human Rights Refugees!🏴‍☠️

 

Janine Prantl
Dr. Janine Prantl
Immigration Postdoctoral Associate
Cornell Law
PHOTO: Cornell Law
Professor Stephen Yale-Loehr
Professor Stephen Yale-Loehr
Cornell Law

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-let-private-citizens-sponsor-refugees-20221015-dtepnanthfegnpf6anjirwt3by-story.html 

Let private citizens sponsor refugees

By Janine Prantl and Stephen Yale-Loehr

New York Daily News

Oct 15, 2022

Every fall, the U.S. president sets a refugee ceiling — the maximum number of refugees that may be resettled annually to the United States. For the new fiscal year that started Oct. 1, President Biden plans to resettle up to 125,000 refugees. Because of dramatic cuts to the refugee program during the prior administration, that goal will be hard to meet. A year ago, Biden set the same target, but more than 100,000 refugee slots went unused.

Historically, only the U.S. government, working with international refugee agencies and nonprofits, has determined which refugees will be admitted to the United States. That’s a mistake. To meet its goal of admitting 125,000 refugees this fiscal year, the United States should also promptly allow private sponsorships of refugees.

In February 2021, Biden issued an executive order to rebuild our refugee program, including through private refugee sponsorships. Subsequently, the State Department announced plans to start a pilot program, but the launch has been delayed. Over a year after the first announcement, and close to the end of 2022, the State Department has not decided on the funding of prospective partners or issued guidelines on the pilot. The clock is ticking.

Several countries, including Canada, Australia, Argentina, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Spain, already allow private sponsorships of refugees. Under private sponsorships, individuals and community groups collaborate to provide financial, emotional, and practical support for refugees. Some countries also empower sponsors to nominate specific refugees to enter and stay in their country.

Canada’s experience shows that private sponsorships can work. A 2020 study confirmed that privately-sponsored refugees are more likely than government-sponsored refugees to be working within the first year after entering Canada, with an employment rate at 90% for men and 71% for women. Findings from Canada also suggest that privately-sponsored refugees are more likely to stay at their initial destinations and private sponsorships could contribute to geographic dispersal of resettled refugees.

Americans are already engaged in private sponsorships for Afghans and Ukrainians through the Sponsor Circles initiative. This initiative supports Americans who decide to become sponsors by assisting them in the application process, offering temporary housing credits through Airbnb.org, as well as ongoing expert guidance and other sponsor tools and resources. More than 123,000 Americans have applied to financially sponsor Ukrainians, and over 87,000 Ukrainians have been granted permission to travel to the United States. The number of arrivals will likely exceed 100,000 by the end of 2022.

While technically most Ukrainians and Afghans have not entered the United States as refugees, lessons learned from the Sponsor Circles initiative could help establish a formal private refugee sponsorship model. Because most Ukrainians enter the United States under parole power, they can be authorized for travel in as little as two weeks. However, prospective sponsors have recently reported longer processing times.

To transform private sponsorships from an emergency one-time program to a formalized program where beneficiaries enter as refugees, with access to long-term residence and citizenship, the backlog issue becomes even more concerning. Current tests of 30-day streamlined visa processing for Afghans in Doha could be expanded and serve as a role model for both parolees and refugees. Moreover, to mobilize private refugee sponsors and enable them to prepare, the U.S. government needs to move forward quickly and specify a program design for private refugee sponsors, including financial requirements, sponsorship time commitments, and concrete sponsor responsibilities.

Once a private refugee sponsorship program gets launched, sponsors will have to accomplish challenging tasks. They will have to deal with language barriers, find affordable housing and help new refugees apply for public benefits. For such a process to work, it is important to set up communication streams between private refugee sponsors and existing refugee resettlement agencies.

Public-private partnerships work in other areas. For example, they have become an increasingly popular way to upgrade infrastructure and address the challenges of climate change. By incorporating a private refugee sponsorship model, the U.S. government can supplement its own efforts to admit 125,000 refugees this fiscal year.

More importantly, private refugee sponsorships would allow Americans to participate directly in welcoming refugees and facilitating their successful integration. Experience in the United Kingdom shows that private sponsorship can be a powerful tool in expanding communities’ understanding and capacity for welcoming newcomers. It can reduce fears about others more generally, change working practices to make them more inclusive for diverse populations, and bring new perspectives into relatively homogeneous communities. Involving U.S. citizens in the immigration process could thus be a way to dampen the current heated debate about immigration and allow Americans to see the mutual benefits of immigration.

Janine Prantl is an immigration postdoctoral associate in the Cornell Law School Immigration Law and Policy Research Program. Stephen Yale-Loehr is professor of immigration law practice at Cornell Law School.

*********************

Lots of creative ideas out here on how to improve our broken refugee and asylum systems! But, from those in charge of migration policy in the Biden Administration, not so much!😢

No, they are stuck in reverse. A small-time “overseas” refugee program for  Venezuelans (24k “slots” for a refugee crisis that has generated more than 6 million refugees)🤯; a heavy dose of cruel and discredited “Stephen Miller Lite” Title 42 for those who exercise their legal right to apply for asylum at or near the border 🤮; more “due process free” illegal returns to abusive conditions in Mexico☠️.

Perhaps inadvertently, a recent NBC Nightly News report on the border mentioned a widely ignored fact. It pictured and described desperate Venezuelans patiently waiting in line to turn themselves in to CPB to exercise their legal rights to apply for asylum and other protections in the U.S. That’s right — “turn themselves in!”

This is NOT real law enforcement, nor does it present a security crisis! Nor are the oft repeated “record numbers” of  border “apprehensions” legitimate!

Since individuals are often returned to Mexico with neither proper processing nor due process, many of these “apprehensions” are inflated — representing repeated “apprehensions” of the same individual merely seeking to apply for asylum — a legal right denied to them by both the Trump and Biden Administrations!

One might also ask whether an individual turning him or herself in and requesting legal asylum is “apprehended” at all? That’s why CBP has started using the more ambiguous term “encounter” to disguise what’s really happening at the border.

Under the Biden Administration’s latest discriminatory and  brain dead application of Title 42, those Venezuelans  who voluntarily turn themselves in at ports of entry or near the border will be illegally returned to Mexico to rot — as a “reward” for attempting to follow the law. Does this make sense? Of course not. And the consequences of this horrible “policy” are dire for both the refugees and our nation. In many ways, the Biden Administration inexplicably has gone even beyond the cruel stunts of DeSantis and Abbott in making “political footballs” 🏈out of vulnerable Venezuelan refugees! It’s an ongoing national disgrace, masquerading as “policy!”

The only avenue for legal refugee for these Venezuelans fleeing a repressive left-wing dictatorship is to hire a smuggler to get them past the border where they can lose themselves in the interior of the U.S. That is, under the Biden policy, “do it yourself, black market refuge” substitutes for a variable legal system and adds to the unscreened and often unknown underground population of undocumented migrants. in the U.S.

A robust, realistic refugee program for Venezuela, operating both in Mexico and in or near Venezuela, might well reduce the incentives for extralegal migration. It could also take some pressure off of other “receiving” countries in the Hemisphere. But, the “token” — unduly limited — program proposed by the Biden Administration will do nothing of the sort!

Extralegal entries and underground populations are not good. Robust, realistic, timely, refugee and asylum programs — properly focused on using existing laws for protection, not rejection — would reduce the incentive for extralegal migration while reaping the many potential benefits and strengths that refugees and asylees “bring to the table.”

Such a beneficial program is achievable — under current law. But, not without a radical shakeup in both the leadership and substance of the Biden Administration’s so-called human rights bureaucracy!

Casey Stengel

“Can’t anybody here play this game,” wonders Casey Stengel about the cruel, clueless crew in charge of human rights and immigration (non)policy in the Biden-Harris Administration.
PHOTO: Rudi Reit
Creative Commons

 🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-17-22

 

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  2. 👍🏼⚖️🗽MAJORITY OF ASYLUM SEEKERS WIN THEIR CASES, EVEN IN A BROKEN & BIASED  SYSTEM INTENTIONALLY STACKED AGAINST THEM — But, Only, If They Can Get To A “Merits Adjudication!” — Nativist Lies, Myths, Driving USG Policies Exposed! — Why USCIS & EOIR Self-Created Backlogs Primarily Shaft Those Deserving Legal Protection Of Some Type!
  3. 👍🏼🗽⚖️🙂🇺🇸BREAKING: IN A STUNNING REVERSAL, BIDEN ADMINISTRATION WILL BEGIN DISMANTLING “REMAIN IN MEXICO” PROGRAM BY SCREENING & ADMITTING THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN AWAITING ASYLUM HEARINGS! — Processing To Begin On Feb. 19!
  4. VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS THINKS RULE OF LAW DOESN’T APPLY TO RICH NATION THAT ILLEGALLY TURNS DESPERATE REFUGEES AWAY, SUGGESTS GUATEMALANS SHOULD DIE IN PLACE! — “Deterrence Statement” Won’t Stop Migration, Won’t Appease Nativist-Restrictionists, But Will Cost Her Support From Human Rights Progressives Who Helped Elect Her!  — There Will Be No Workable Solutions At Our Southern Border Without a Functional, Robust Legal Asylum System That Complies With Due Process!

🇺🇸 MIGRANTS, W/ OR W/O DOCS, ARE AGAIN BAILING OUT FLA, DESPITE DeSANTIS’S RACIST STUNTS — Don’t Expect Reality To Change The White Nationalist False Narrative!

https://apple.news/AFdtHuzYiQS-N1caP0gT6UA

Ciara Nugent
Ciara Nugent
Staff Writer
Time
PHOTO: Time.com

From Time Maggie:

Migrants Are Leading Clean-up Efforts in Florida, Despite DeSantis’ Crusade Against Them

Migrant workers are flooding-in to help Florida rebuild after Hurricane Ian, even as Governor Ron DeSantis wages a crusade against them.

CIARA NUGENT

Three days after Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida on Sept. 28 as a Category 4 storm, Johnny Aburto arrived in Port Charlotte, a mostly white community of 64,000, popular with retirees, on the state’s southwestern coast. The town suffered extensive damage during the storm: roofs blown off, homes flooded, power lines downed. There is a lot of work to be done.

Aburto, 42, is here to do it. Originally from Nicaragua, he is part of a large, informal, overwhelmingly immigrant workforce that travels the U.S. cleaning up after increasingly frequent climate-related disasters. Once a hurricane hits, these crews are bussed in by contractors desperate for workers, or they drive to the area themselves and wait in Walmart or Home Depot parking lots to be picked up for a day’s work. Aburto, a skilled laborer, was in New Orleans after Katrina in 2005, Baton Rouge after Louisiana’s floods in 2016, Panama City Beach after Michael in 2018, and Lake Charles after Laura in 2020. “These kinds of events really affect people,” he says. “We do our bit to help them.”

In Port Charlotte, Aburto is now busy covering roofs with tarpaulins—a crucial first step to keep homes safe from future rain, so that power can be restored and residents can come back. He’s also cleaning out soaked debris from interiors. When that kind of work is done, he says, many of his colleagues will stay on to make more permanent repairs.

. . . .

*****************

Read the complete article at the link.

Sadly, America has a long disreputable history of denying the humanity and rights of those whose labor and skills built our nation and made it great. African Americans,  Chinese-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Filipino-Americans, Haitian-Americans, and many others have all felt the sting of racism, demonizing myths, dehumanization, exploitation, and grotesque ingratitude. 

I happen to be reading UVA Professor Amanda Frost’s outstanding book on “citizenship stripping.” I was struck by this quote about the exploitation of Mexican workers during the “Bracero Program” which was followed by “Operation Wetback” — the Eisenhower Administration’s totally illegal mass removal of Mexicans, including lawful immigrants and U.S. citizens!

“As one grower put it, “We used to own our slaves. Now we just rent them.” 51”

— You Are Not American: Citizenship Stripping from Dred Scott to the Dreamers by Amanda Frost

https://a.co/0BsTPuZ

Amanda Frost
Amanda Frost
Professor UVA Law
Author, “You Are Not American: Citizenship Stripping from Dred Scott to the Dreamers “
PHOTO: UVA Law

It would be nice to think this time will be different — that we have advanced as a nation. But, I wouldn’t bank on it!

Floridians have a golden opportunity to replace DeSantis with a real Governor, Charlie Crist, who would serve all people, use government resources prudently, and govern in the public interest. Polls, however, say that such a “Florida epiphany” is unlikely. But, it’s still possible.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-08-22

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  3. 😰👹👺🏴‍☠️☠️⚰️🤮“DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN” — Nicole Narea @ Vox With A Glimpse Of Trump’s Second Term: American Apocalypse — Dark, Ugly, Hateful, Violent, Dishonest, Exclusionary, Stupid, Racist, Diminished, Yet Very White & Privileged — Are People Of Color & Their Allies Really Going To Stand By & Watch While Their Past & Our Future As A Strong, Creative, Tolerant, Diverse, Humane Nation Is Written Out Of History By A Racist GOP & Its Totally Wacko Yet Dangerously Evil Cult Leader?
  4. INCONVENIENT TRUTH: HALEY SWEETLAND EDWARDS @ TIME TELLS WHAT TRUMP, MILLER, COTTON, SESSIONS, & THEIR WHITE NATIONALIST GANG DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW: Human Migration Is A Powerful Force As Old As Human History; It’s A Plus For Receiving Nations; It Won’t Be Stopped By Walls, Jails, Racist Laws, Or Any Other Restrictionist Nonsense; But, It Can Be Intelligently Controlled, Channeled, Harnessed, & Used For The Benefit Of The U.S. & The Good Of The Migrants! — “But to maximize that future good, governments must act rationally to establish humane policies and adequately fund an immigration system equipped to handle an influx of newcomers.”

🏴‍☠️🤮 HALLS OF INJUSTICE: Allegations Of Racism, Misogyny, Islamophobia, & Other Bias Have Been Swirling Around Garland’s Dysfunctional EOIR — Now, The Ohio Immigrant Alliance Is Seeking & Assembling Examples To Force Long Overdue Action!

Garland’s “vision of justice” for asylum seekers and other migrants at EOIR leaves something to be desired:

Four Horsemen
Folks with wrong-headed “take no prisoners” views on asylum law were “rewarded” with “ judgeships” at both the trial and appellate levels of EOIR under the Trump Administration. Many continue to serve and discriminate against legitimate asylum seekers under Garland. Just check out the number of “sitting IJ’s” with outrageously high “asylum denial rates” near or in excess of 90%, according to TRAC Immigration. Why haven’t these important, non-life-tenured positions been “merit re-competed” to place the “best, brightest, and most qualified” on the Immigration Bench?
Albrecht Dürer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Woman Tortured
Jaundiced attitudes about women (particularly those of color) and gender-based asylum claims among EOIR judges have neither been “rooted out” nor effectively addressed by Garland. As we can see, de-humanization of women and stripping them of dignity under asylum laws carries over into other legal arenas! Targeted, endemic. societal persecution of women is often intentionally minimized and mis-characterized as “random violence,” “personal disputes,” “mere jealousy,” or “not that serious” in Immigration Court! “Fictionalized accounts” of the ability of abused women to seek protection from authorities in countries where femicide and rape are rampant   are sometimes employed to deny legitimate asylum claims in Garland’s broken courts.
Amazing StoriesArtist Unknown, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Star Chamber Justice
Wrong , “unduly restrictive,” asylum precedents and discredited methods (“Aimless Docket Reshuffling” — on steroids under Garland — is a key example) continue to harm asylum seekers in Garland’s dysfunctional “courts.” — Public Realm

 

https://ohioimmigrant.org/2022/09/08/wanted-examples-of-racism-and-other-bias-in-us-immigration-court/

WANTED: Examples Of Racism And Other Bias In US Immigration Court

September 8, 2022tramontelaComments Off

on WANTED: Examples of racism and other bias in US immigration court

. . . .

The nation’s Immigration Courts have—thus far—flown under the public’s radar screen. Yet these are the places where life-or-death decisions are made, often for subjective and even racist reasons. That is why the Ohio Immigrant Alliance is collecting examples of racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic, and other biased statements and decisions made by Immigration Judges from across the country. We are working with a research team to analyze the cases and produce a report in early 2023.  Here are a few examples.

Contact Lauren Hamlett (hamlett.15 AT buckeyemail.osu.edu) for more information or to share examples. This can be in the form of court documents and judges’ decisions or an interview with an immigrant or attorney. We will adhere to all privacy requirements requested by the immigrant and not publish anything without their consent.

The report, to be published in 2023, will shine a light on how racism shows up in Immigration Court using real-life examples. These findings will enrage anyone who believes the U.S. should work toward becoming a nation that guarantees “justice for all.”

See this testimony for more information, and contact Lauren to share your experiences.

*******************

I was struck by the undeniable truth — scandalously ignored by Garland, his lieutenants, and Biden Administration policy officials — contained in the January 20, 2022 statement by Lynn Tramonte, Ohio Immigrant Alliance, to the House Judiciary Committee considering the need for an independent, professionally-administered, merit-based Immigration Court. 

The U.S. Is Deporting People Who Qualify for Asylum

The current U.S. immigration system is not designed to function fairly, but to fail. There are many examples of this, but today I will focus on examples from the U.S. Immigration Court.

Lynn’s full statement is available at the “this testimony” link above. I’ve made this point over and over!

Because the current system is purposely biased against asylum seekers, particularly those of color arriving at our Southern border, the “statistics” purportedly showing that few will qualify for asylum are totally bogus! Then, they are inexcusably cited by so-called “mainstream media” who haven’t done their homework! This perpetuates the “nativist myth” of the “illegitimate asylum seeker” which is then used to dehumanize refugees and deny them their legal and human rights!

Fact is, because we don’t have a legitimate, expert asylum adjudication system, we don’t really know how many qualified refugees are being illegally turned away or denied. But, it’s a safe bet that a fair, expert, professionally administered asylum system would grant legal protection to many more — probably a majority — of those who pass credible fear! 

The problem is NOT, as Sessions and other nativists claimed, that too many individuals pass “credible fear.” It’s that a biased, anti-asylum, mal-administered, and constitutionally flawed system wrongfully denies far, far, far too many legitimate claims! And, Garland’s incredibly dysfunctional EOIR is at the heart of this problem!

Fixing EOIR is an essential first step in “re-legitimizing” our entire floundering justice system. But, Garland isn’t up to the job!

Asylum is an important form of legal immigration and an opportunity for America to put its best foot forward by properly, fairly, and timely screening and admitting those who can qualify for refuge and will be key contributors to our nation’s future. The babble of GOP nativists like DeSantis, Cruz, Abbott, and others about “illegals” is total BS! 

Asylum seekers have every right to be here and pursue fair, timely, and professional adjudication of their claims — something that’s elusive — highly unlikely to happen — under today’s “designed to fail” system! That includes the “new, designed to fail, improperly staffed and mindlessly operated asylum regulations.” See, e.g., https://immigrationcourtside.com/2022/10/03/%f0%9f%98%b0asylum-programmed-for-failure-refugee-roulette-three-rr3-confirm-what-many-of-us-said-right-off-the-bat-about-biden-admin/

It’s an ongoing national disgrace that Garland has failed to reform his Immigration Courts, eliminate bias and invidious discrimination from his judiciary, install quality, expertise, and professionalism, and insist that the Biden Administration abandon “Miller Lite,” nativist policies and mis-interpretations of the law that are diminishing our nation and endangering our future; that he also has ridiculously chosen to “go to war” with experts, NGOs, attorneys, and others seeking to change and improve his disgraceful mess at EOIR!

What’s the purpose and function of an Attorney General who operates broken and biased “courts,” defends the indefensible, and refuses to stand up for the fair application of the law to some of the most vulnerable among us?

In the meantime, submit your “real life” examples of what really happens to vulnerable humans in “America’s worst courts” to Ohio Immigrant Alliance at the above link.

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

10-07-22

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  3. ⚖️🗽🧑🏽‍⚖️COURTS OF APPEALS CONTINUE TO THROW ROTTEN TOMATOES 🍅 @ BIA’S ANTI-ASYLUM BIAS — Basic Analytical, Legal Errors Continue From Weaponized, Non-Expert “Star Chamber” ☠️ Posing As ”Tribunal!” — Judge Garland Must Fix This Inexcusable, Unnecessary, Systemic Failure Now! — Justice For Persons Of Color & Migrants Can’t “Wait For Godot!”
  4. 🆘🤮IS 11TH CIR. GROWING WEARY OF GARLAND’S SCOFFLAW BIA? —Two Trips To The Circuit, & The BIA Still Violates Own Regulations, Ignores Precedent, Spouts Gibberish While OIL’s Defense Of This Nonsense & Malfeasance By EOIR Raises Serious Ethical Questions! — THAMOTAR v. U.S. ATT’Y GEN. — Garland’s Dysfunctional & Systematically Unjust Courts Undermine OUR Democracy☠️ — Demand An IMMEDIATE End To The Scofflaw Nonsense🤡 🧹 At OUR Justice Department! 🏴‍☠️